mmla 

1885 

1    A 

A  ■ 

1    A      = 

A  s 

<y>    1 

— —  : "     aMI 

o  i 

a    a 

0  I 

-                33     1 

p  M 

1  |M  -n     H 

3  ! 

o    9 

— •  ^    1 

5  I 

~~        3>    I 

6  E 

T"      ■  ■  — .  CD      ^H 

_-  33      HH 

9  = 

^^^  in     a 
—  -<    B 

6  I 

—        >    § 

2  S 

—  i —    1 

— .  ■<    1 

1  m 

L1BRAR\ 

UNIVb    i-T^  Of 

SAN  C!ESO 


IIA,  SAN  DIEGO 
LA  JOLLA,  CALIFORNIA 


HOW   TO    HELP    THE    POOR. 


BY 


Mrs.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 


TWENTY-SECOND  THOUSAND. 


BOSTON  : 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY, 

New  York:    11   East  Seventeenth   Street. 

(aflbe  fitoersiue  pre??,  Cambridge. 

1885 


Copyright,  1883, 

By  MRS.  JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 

All  rights  reserved. 


"  Though  I  bestow  all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor, 
and  have  not  charTty,  it  profiteth  me  nothing."  —  Si- 
Paul. 

* 

"  The  grand  doctrine  that  every  human  being  should 
have  the  means  of  self-culture,  of  progress  in  knowl- 
edge and  virtue,  of  health,  comfort,  and  happiness,  of 
exercising  the  powers  and  affections  of  a  man, —  this 
is  slowly  taking  its  place  as  the  highest  social  truth." 
—  William  Ellery  Channing. 

"  No  historic  event  is  so  important  as  the  advent  of 
a  conviction,  of  a  new  truth.  These  convictions  of  the 
human  soul  build  up  institutions,  change  the  course  of 
events,  and  alter  the  tendencies  of  human  affairs ;  and 
among  all  convictions  there  are  none  so  strong,  perma- 
nent, and  unconquerable  as  religious  convictions." — 
James  Freeman  Clarke. 


NOTE. 

This  little  manual  does  not  propose  to  deal 
with  public  questions.  It  aims  to  give  a  few 
suggestions  to  visitors  among  the  poor,  and  to 
lead  all  such  visitors  to  attend  the  conferences 
which  now  are  held  weekly  in  almost  every  dis- 
trict of  our  large  cities. 

In  these  meetings,  they  will  reap  advantage 
from  the  experience  and  knowledge  of  others 
who  are  endeavoring,  like  themselves,  to  lighten 
the  burden  of  the  unfortunate.  Especially,  we 
believe  that  such  meetings  will  awaken  a  wider 
interest  in  the  hearts  of  well-to-do  people, —  an 
interest  strong  enough  to  increase  the  number 
of  visitors  to  the  homes  of  the  poor. 

Every  page  of  this  book  is  a  prayer  for  more 
helpers,  and  aims  to  show  that  such  labor  is 
neither  too  difficult  for  us,  nor  one  from  which 
any  household  can  feel  itself  altogether  exempted. 


CONTENTS. 


I.     Why  Organization  Began 5 

II.    How  Organization  Began, 14 

III.  What  a  District  Conference  is,  and 

how  to  Create  One, 26 

IV.  What  a  Visitor  may  do  for  Children 

and  Young  Persons, 44 

V.    Suggestions  in  Behalf  of  the  Aged,  .  66 

VI.    Investigation, 78 

VII.    Intemperance, 92 

VIII.    Visitors  and  Visited 107 


WHY    ORGANIZATION   BEGAN. 

"  Give  to  him  that  asketh "  is  one  of  the 
most  direct  commands  in  the  Christian  Script- 
ure ;  doubtless,  in  some  form,  the  same  com- 
mand may  be  found  in  every  scripture  since 
man  began  his  race  with  man. 

The  slow  growth  of  moral  civilization  is 
only  now  beginning  to  unfold  the  true  signifi- 
cance of  this  law,  which  is  found  to  stand 
side  by  side  with  other  laws  belonging  to  it 
and  explaining  it.  These  bring  us  to  consider 
the  Example  from  whom  we  receive  our  doc- 
trine. We  find  him  living  the  life  of  an 
utterly  poor  man,  who  could  give  neither 
silver  nor  gold,  yet  whose  bounty  was  un- 
ceasing. He  taught  his  followers  to  speak  of 
themselves  "  as  poor,  yet  making  many  rich." 

"Give  to  him  that  asketh,"  therefore,  should 
be  the  true  motto  for  this  revival  in  benevo- 
lent work  which  we  call  organized  or  associ- 
ated  charity,   whereby  we  learn  to  take  hold 


6  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

of  each  other's  hands,  and,  forming  a  break- 
water thus  against  the  rising  waves  of  pauper- 
ism, find  ourselves  strengthened  into  better 
ways  for  relieving  suffering. 

Formerly,  when  the  knight  rode  out  from 
his  castle,  he  scattered  largess  as  he  went, 
and  the  people  bowed  and  worshipped  the 
hand  that  shed  down  the  golden  rain;  but, 
when  the  giver  of  the  gold  had  passed,  they 
crept  into  their  wretched  huts  and  lived  little 
better  than  the  beasts  of  the  field.  As  civ- 
ilization advanced,  and  castles  were  de- 
stroyed, and  men  gathered  into  large  cities, 
trade  and  commerce  increased,  and  equal 
chances  were  given  to  equal  strength.  Then 
the  idea  of  brotherhood  among  men  began 
to  develop.  It  had  been  prophesied  in  the 
holy  places,  but  at  last  it  was  becoming  a 
visible  truth  in  the  mind  of  humanity.  Equal 
worth  was  seen  to  be  allied  to  unequal 
strength,  and  the  growth  of  love  to  man  pro- 
duced fellowship  and  sympathy  with  suffering. 
The  simplest  and  least  thoughtful,  or  least 
spiritual,  methods  were  first  seized  upon  in 
the  earlier  times  for  the  alleviation  of  poverty 
and  its  ills.  Community  of  goods,  gifts  of 
gold,  gifts  of  land,  every  temporal  method 
was  essayed,  and  all  to  no  good  end.     Those 


Why   Organization  Began.  7 

who  had  no  gold  before,  seemed  to  have  still 
less,  and  to  be  worse  off  than  ever,  after  the 
gifts  were  exhausted.  The  larger  the  city, 
the  more  munificent  its  expenditure,  the 
darker  its  poverty  and  its  degradation.  Even 
in  these  later  times,  when  the  idea  of  civiliza- 
tion has  begun  te  creep  "  into  the  study  of 
imagination,"  a  friend  has  related  substan- 
tially "as  follows  her  experience  during  one 
day. 

With  the  early  morning  mail  came  a  letter 
from Association,  asking  for  a  gener- 
ous yearly  subscription.  The  names  of  good 
men  and  women  were  on  the  list.  She  read 
that  all  cases  were  carefully  visited  who  ap- 
plied for  aid ;  therefore,  she  enclosed  her  con- 
tribution. By  and  by,  we  shall  see  how  this 
money  was  used. 

Another  letter  was  then  opened  from  a 
woman  in  Lowell,  who  had  heard  this  lady's 
name,  and  wished  "her  advice  and  assist- 
ance." The  woman  had  a  mortgage  on  her 
house,  and  she  sent  names  of  well-known  per- 
sons in  Lowell  who  would  help  her  with  cer- 
tain sums,  if  she  could  make  up  the  full 
amount  elsewhere.  The  request  seemed  quite 
reasonable,  because  the  woman  should  keep  a 
roof  over  her  head,  if  possible,  having  three 


8  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

children.  On  the  whole,  my  friend  decided 
to  make  up  the  deficit  of  about  two  hundred 
dollars.  Later  on  in  these  pages,  I  propose 
to  consider  another  method  of  disposing  of 
such  a  case. 

A  third  letter  was  from  a  woman  who 
wished  to  learn  to  play  the  harp,  and  desired 
to  insure  her  life  for  that  purpose.  At  this 
moment,  a  man  called  with  a  paper  signed  by 
the  mayor  and  prominent  merchants,  stating 
that  he  fell  down  a  hatchway  a  year  ago,  and 
had  required  help  ever  since.  Here,  also, 
money  was  given.  I  hope  in  these  pages  to 
return  also  to  this  case. 

Presently,  Mrs.  X.  went  out.  She  was  one 
of  the  managers  of  a  sewing-circle  and  a 
trustee  of  a  Temporary  Home,  and,  before 
returning  in  the  afternoon,  she  performed  her 
usual  labors  in  both  those  positions.  Going 
hurriedly  along  the  street,  she  was  accosted 
by  a  child  who  looked  very  cold,  and  who 
asked  her  for  a  cent.  It  was  so  little  !  She 
gave  him  a  bit  of  money,  and  so  reached 
home,  her  clay's  work  done. 

By  and  by,  we  will  follow  this  doing  out 
into  its  detail,  giving  a  simple  statement  of 
what  was  effected  by  her  generous  expendi- 
ture  of   time    and   money.      Mrs.    X.  herself 


Why  Organization  Began.  9 

did  not  feel  satisfied.  She  could  not  see  that 
anything  was  accomplished.  Apparently,  to- 
morrow must  be  the  same  as  to-day,  bringing 
much  weariness  and  little  fruition.  She  re- 
membered, too  late,  that  she  had  intended 
to  buy  on  this  day  a  certain  picture.  The 
artist  needed  to  'know  that  some  one  cared 
for  his  work,  and  her  own  children  would  be 
better  and  happier  for  having  the  beautiful 
scene  before  their  eyes. 

The  thought  came  back,  also,  that  an  even- 
ing-school for  boys,  which  she  had  long  hoped 
for  (seeing  how  much  care  is  needed  in  city 
life,  fcr  boys),  was  still  far  from  being  estab- 
lished. She  saw  more  and  more  plainly  that 
she  was  not  yet  working  altogether  in  the 
right  direction,  since  there  seemed  absolutely 
no  harvest  after  all  her  labor. 

One  day,  Mrs.  X.  discovered  from  a  book 
which  fell  into  her  hands  that  the  subject 
weighing  upon  her  mind  —  of  how  we  may 
best  use  what  we  possess,  both  of  time  and 
money,  in  behalf  of  the  unfortunate  —  was  not 
a  problem  belonging  to  herself  alone.  It  had 
already  become  a  vital  question  first  in  Europe 
and  later  in  America. 

She  read  of  a  city  in  Germany  —  in  which 
country   much  good  thought   is  developed  — 


io  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

which  had  been  divided  and  subdivided  into 
manageable  sections  and  where  the   poor  are 
all  placed  under  the  supervision  of  companies 
of   visitors,  men    and  women,  who  go  to  see 
the    needy    and    advise    with    them,   in    order 
that  educated    and    sympathetic   interest  may 
be  brought  to  bear  upon  their  condition.     By 
this  means,  it  was  discovered    that    the  poor 
and  unhappy  drop  out  of  sight  and  lose  their 
way    in   the  world.     Therefore,   the    effect   of 
bringing  friends  to  the  friendless  has  proved 
almost  miraculous,   especially  during  the  life 
of  the   good  man  who  first  tried  this  experi- 
ment   at    Elberfeld.     The    result   was   greatly 
successful  in  that    place.     His  work   brought 
the  new  life  which  springs  from  every  living 
seed.     Later,   Dr.  Chalmers  achieved  a  large 
measure    of  success   in    Glasgow,   introducing 
practically  the   same  idea,  though  possibly  it 
was  also  original  with    him.     From  that   mo- 
ment,  the   movement  was   established   in   the 
world  and  can    never    die   out   of    it.     It   be- 
seeches  humanity  to  give.     Day  by  day  this 
cry  is  reiterated,  Come  and  help  us  !     Give  us 
of  your  time  first,  then,  if  you  see  fit,  of  your 
money.     Give  to  him  that  asketh  enough  of 
your    attention    to    find    somebody  or    to   pay 
somebody,  if   you  cannot  go  yourself,  to  dis- 


Why  Organization  Began.  1 1 

cover  the  real  condition  of  the  sufferers. 
There  need  be  no  beggars  in  our  American 
cities.  Labor  is  wanted  everywhere,  espe- 
cially educated  labor;  nowhere  is  the  supply 
of  the  latter  equal  to  the  demand.  But  the 
education  of  public  schools  at  present  does  not 
bring  labor  of  the  hands  into  sufficient  promi- 
nence*; and  it  is  a  fact  to  be  considered  that 
governesses  and  teachers  often  earn  smaller 
wages  than  professed  cooks  and  dressmakers 
when  the  latter  are  skilful  in  their  business. 

Meanwhile  there  is  a  large  proportion  of 
the  people  crying  continually,  "Give  to  us." 
What  they  really  need  is  a  chance  to  learn 
how  to  work,  and  sufficient  protection,  in  the 
mean  time,  from  the  evils  of  idleness,  drunk- 
enness, and  vice. 

Miss  Octavia  Hill  writes :  "  I  do  believe 
that  our  almsgiving  has  been  cruel  in  its  kind- 
ness. It  is  for  the  sake  of  the  people  them- 
selves that  I  would  see  it  decreased,  yes,  even 
put  down  altogether.  I  believe  they  would  be 
richer  as  well  as  happier  for  it.  For  the  sake 
of  the  energy  of  the  poor,  the  loss  of  which 
is  so  fatal  to  them,  for  the  sake  of  that  inter- 
course with  them  —  happy,  friendly,  human  in- 
tercourse —  which  dependence  renders  impos- 
sible, seek  to  your  utmost  for  better  ways  of 
'  helping  them.'  " 


12  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

This  is  why  organization  began  with  us. 
A  cry  was  heard  from  men  and  women  need- 
ing a  chance  in  this  new  land  and  seeking  to 
be  rescued  from  their  misfortunes. 

Dr.  Joseph  Tuckerman  was  one  of  the  first 
men  in  Boston  who  brought  to  light  the  im- 
portant "difference  between  pauperism  and 
poverty."  His  life  was  passed  in  endeavor- 
ing to  awaken  our  people  to  their  duty,  and 
to  the  necessity  of  wise  and  organized  effort 
against  pauperism.  In  this  labor  for  the  poor 
he  says,  "  We  must  identify  ourselves  with  the 
transgressor,  through  that  sympathy  with  which 
nothing  short  of  a  strong  sense  of  our  own  sins 
can  inspire  us " ;  and  he  adds,  "  A  few  judi- 
cious and  energetic  minds,  combined  and  re- 
solved to  accomplish  all  they  can  and  may  for 
the  suppression  of  pauperism  and  crime,  could 
accumulate  in  this  world  a  better  treasure 
than  all  their  wealth,  let  them  be  rich  as  they 
may ;  and  in  a  few  years  might  do  more  for 
the  advancement  of  society  than  without  these 
services  would  be  accomplished  in  half  a  cen- 
tury. .  .  .  Only  by  creating  a  feeling  of  relation- 
ship and  connection  between  different  classes 
of  society  .  .  .  can  we  ever  bring  about  any 
great  and  permanent  melioration  of  the  condi- 
tion of  the   poor,  any  great   and   permanent 


Why  Organization  Began.  13 

means  for  the   prevention  of  pauperism   and 
crime. 

"'Faith  alone  can  interpret  life;   and  the  heart  that 
aches  and  bleeds  with  the  stigma 
Of  pain  alone  bears  the  likeness  of  Christ,  and  can 
comprehend  its  dark  enigma.' " 


II. 

HOW   ORGANIZATION   BEGAN. 

"How  organization  began"  signifies  not 
only  the  need  from  which  it  sprang,  but  the 
form  it  assumed.  The  form  in  Boston  is  as 
follows :  — 

First,  the  Registration  Bureau. 

Second,  the  Board  of  Directors. 

Third,  the  District  Offices. 

Fourth,  the  Agents. 

Fifth,  and  chief  in  importance,  the  Volun- 
teer Visitors. 

The  Registration  Bureau  is  like  a  room  in 
a  large  public  library,  with  the  private  history 
of  individuals,  instead  of  books,  carefully  ar- 
ranged on  cards  which  are  kept  strictly  from 
the  public  eye ;  with  its  library  upon  the 
various  branches  of  this  wide  subject  of  how 
best  to  help  the  unfortunate,  its  tables  where 
gentlemen  and  ladies  may  consult  together, 
and,  more  important  than  all,  its  Registrar, 
ready  to  give  intelligent  information  to  those 
who  apply. 


Hozv  Organization  Began.  15 

The  story  of  the  birth  and  growth  of  the 
Registration  or  Central  Office  is  worthy  of 
record.  It  is  now  a  basis  on  which  intelligent 
assistance  for  the  unfortunate  can  plant  itself 
with  hope  of  success,  so  soon  as  society  un- 
derstands its  value.  When  the  public  begins 
to  serve  the  poor  by  first  inquiring  what  is 
known  about  them  at  this  office,  and  when 
newspapers  cease  to  print  appeals  for  indi- 
vidual needs  until  the  same  thing  has  been 
done,  the  true  value  of  the  office  will  be  un- 
derstood ;  but,  while  money  is  wasted  on 
private  applicants  in  whose  behalf  there  is 
already  a  large  public  appropriation,  it  is  not 
possible  to  obtain  a  sufficiently  generous  sum 
yearly  to  foster  the  best  and  largest  growth  of 
registration. 

"The  Registration  Bureau  may  be  called 
a  clearing-house  of  information.  All  reports 
of  relief  are  kept  on  cards  alphabetically 
arranged,  and  there  are  on  file  now  more 
than  twenty  thousand.  There  is  no  publicity 
about  this  work,  and  the  cards  are  strictly 
limited  in  their  use  to  the  detection  of  impost- 
ure or  the  aid  of  a  family." 

Speaking  of  the  important  question  of 
church  co-operation,  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Jr., 
one  of  the  founders  of  united  service  for  the 


1 6  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

poor  in  America,  and  under  whose  fostering 
care  it  has  grown  to  its  present  value  in 
Boston,  writes:  — 

We  ask  the  churches  to  register  all  the  relief  they 
give  ;  and  some  of  them  are  ready  to  do  so,  and  believe 
it  is  wise,  especially  when  they  find  that  these  facts  are 
kept  private.  But  many  of  the  churches  decline,  owing 
to  the  sacred  relation  existing  between  themselves  and 
their  own  poor.  In  these  cases,  we  ask  them  to  send 
their  workers  to  consult  the  registration  in  our  office; 
and  this  they  are  usually  ready  to  do.  The  result  is  a 
benefit  to  us  as  well  as  to  them.  It  is  an  advantage  for 
them  to  know  from  what  other  sources  their  poor  are 
drawing  relief,  and,  conversely,  it  is  our  interest  to 
know  that  that  church  is  also  aiding  such  a  family. 

Upon  this  subject,  we  read  in  the  excellent 
Hand-book  for  Friendly  Visitors  among  the  Poor 
of  New  York  :  — 

It  should  be  remembered  that  all  religious  bodies 
recognize  their  obligations  to  provide  for  the  poor 
of  their  own  parishes,  and  often  possess  the  most 
intimate  and  intelligent  knowledge  of  an  applicant's 
circumstances. 

Therefore,  great  care  should  be  taken  not  to  interfere 
with  their  treatment  of  any  case  belonging  to  them; 
and,  to  avoid  the  possibility  of  this,  every  one  who 
belongs  or  pretends  to  belong  to  any  congregation 
should  invariably  be  referred  to  it. 

All  Hebrews  should  be  referred  to  the  Society  of 
the  United  Hebrew  Charities,  which  society  dispenses 
all  synagogical  charity.     All  baptized  Roman  Catholics 


How   Organization  Began.  17 

are  members  of  the  parish  within  whose  limits  they 
reside,  and  should  be  sent  to  their  priest  or  to  the 
President  of  the  Conference  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul 
in  that  parish.  All  Protestants  should  come  strictly 
under  the  same  rule,  and  be  dealt  with  onlv  through 
consultation  with  the  relief  authorities  of  the  parish 
to  which  they  are  fairly  affiliated. 

The  management  of  the  organization  in 
Boston-  is  vested  in  a  board  of  twenty-two 
directors,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  who  meet 
always  once  a  month,  and  more  frequently  in 
emergencies.  In  this  number  are  included 
the  Chairman  of  the  Overseers  of  the  Poor, 
the  President  of  the  Boston  Provident  Asso- 
ciation, the  President  of  the  Societv  of  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul  and  of  the  Roxbury  Chari- 
table Society.  The  other  members  are  per- 
sons chosen  because  they  are  known  to  have 
done  or  tried  to  do  some  practical  labor  for 
the  poor,  as  well  as  because  of  their  intelli- 
gent interest  in  the  subject. 

The  district  office  may  be  called  the  home 
of  the  agent.  Here  duplicate  registration 
cards  of  reference  are  kept  respecting  the 
poor  of  the  district ;  here  information  may  be 
found  about  persons  needing  employment,  es- 
pecially that  of  men  and  children  who  can 
work  only  a  part  of  the  time,  and  therefore 
cannot  be  advertised  or  sent  to  an  intelligence 


1 8  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

office.  These  offices  are  arms,  as  it  were, 
of  the  Industrial  Aid  Society,  which  may  be 
called  a  kind  of  central  bureau  for  employ- 
ment of  this  nature.  Here  the  volunteer  visit- 
ors may  find  the  agent  any  day,  or  meet  each 
other  at  the  regular  meetings  called  confer- 
ences, which  occur  weekly. 

The  agent  becomes  a  connecting  link  for 
the  volunteer  visitors  who  come  daily  for 
advice  and  assistance.  When  a  family  is  in 
distress  of  any  kind,  there  need  be  no  delay 
in  getting  relief,  because  the  agent  is  always 
ready  to  consult  with  the  committee,  if  neces- 
sary, or  is  able  by  constant  experience  to 
know  how  and  what  to  do  immediately. 

The  struggle  of  the  volunteer  visitors  under 
the  various  district  committees  has  been  a 
brave  one,  and  the  exhortation  "  to  give  to 
him  that  asketh  "  is  at  length  bearing  fruit; 
but  it  is  slow  fruition,  because  there  must  be 
growth ;  and,  if  such  work  is  to  be  really 
useful,  the  service  of  many  persons  must  be 
accepted  whose  work  is  necessarily  intermit- 
tent. "  This  must  be  done  in  order  that  we 
may  secure  a  sufficient  number  of  workers, 
and  not  waste,  but  gather  in  and  use,  all  the 
overflowing  sympathy  which  is  such  a  blessing 
to  giver  and  receiver.     With  our  volunteers, 


How   Organization  Began.  19 

home-claims  must  and  should  come  first ;  and 
it  is  precisely  those  whose  claims  are  deepest 
and  whose  family  life  is  the  noblest  who  have 
the  most  precious  influence  in  the  homes  of 
the  poor.  But,  if  the  work  is  to  be  valuable, 
we  must  find  some  way  to  bind  together  those 
broken  scraps  of  time,  and  thus  give  it  con- 
tinuity in  spite  of  changes  and  breaks." 

This  we  believe  we  have  done  in  establish- 
ing agents  in  every  district  who  are  assisted 
each  by  a  committee  of  men  and  women. 
Certainly  agents  and  committees  are  yet  very 
far  from  understanding  the  full  scope  of  their 
work,  but  knowledge  is  increasing  every  day, 
and  the  reform  is  moving  on  because  the 
foundations  are  sound. 

One  great  difficulty  in  advancing  any  public 
work  of  such  unobtrusive  character  is  that  of 
finding  a  sufficient  number  of  unselfish  per- 
sons who  will  take  hold  of  it.  "  I  believe  that 
educated  people  would  come  forward,  if  once 
they  saw  how  they  could  be  really  useful  and 
without  neglecting  nearer  claims.  Let  us  re- 
flect that  hundreds  of  workers  are  wanted; 
that,  if  they  are  to  preserve  their  vigor,  they 
must  not  be  overworked ;  and  that  each  of  us 
that  might  help  and  holds  back  not  only 
leaves  work  undone,  but  injures  to  a  certain 


V 


20  .  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

extent  the  work  of  others.  Let  each  of  us 
not  attempt  too  much,  but  take  some  one 
little  bit  of  work  and,  doing  it  simply,  thor- 
oughly, and  lovingly,  wait  patiently  for  the 
gradual  spread  of  good."  In  our  present 
method  of  helping  the  poor  by  associated  and 
organized  labor,  it  is  found  that  a  little  time 
will  go  a  great  way.  Two  hours  a  week 
on  an  average,  the  year  through,  is  all  the 
time  that  need  be  given  by  a  visitor  who  is 
busied  with  other  duties  and  yet  wishes  to  do 
something  to  help  the  unfortunate.  Within 
this  brief  space  of  time,  more  good  can  be 
achieved  than  is  easy  to  describe  ;  and  who 
cannot  save  two  hours  for  such  a  work  ?  I 
know  many  persons  give  more  time  because 
it  is  theirs  to  bestow,  and  because  their  inter- 
est grows  and  thrusts  aside  other  things ;  but 
this  is  no  reason  why  others  should  withhold 
the  mite  they  possess. 

The  lack  of  organization  in  behalf  of  the 
unfortunate  was  deeply  felt  in  Boston,  and  the 
work  has  been  ardently  started.  Its  present 
value  and  its  future  existence  depend  en- 
tirely upon  the  way  in  which  the  well-to-do 
people  accept  their  yoke  of  service. 

"The  burden  is  light,"  but  it  is  indeed  a 
burden,  and  one  not  to  be  undertaken  in  any 


How   Organization  Began.  21 


'■$ 


frivolous  spirit.  It  is  distinctly  the  work 
pointed  out  to  us  by  the  Founder  of  our 
religion :  and,  in  so  far  as  he  is  loved  and 
believed  in  among  us,  his  service  will  not  be 
forgotten. 

One  of  the  important  results  of  this  sym- 
pathetic inquiry  into  the  true  wants  of  the 
poor  'has  led  to  new  views  respecting  what  is 
called  "  out-door  relief," — that  is,  the  giving 
of  money  (or  its  equivalent)  which  is  raised  by 
taxing  the  people,  if  the  applicants  come  under 
certain  rules  and  laws. 

Mr.  Seth  Low,  of  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  has  said 
upon  this  subject :  — 

Is  it  not  worth  while,  in  these  days  of  prosperity-,  for 
communities  large  and  small,  all  over  the  country,  to 
try  the  experiment  of  abolishing  public  out-door  relief? 
Private  benevolence  seems  preferable  to  public  relief, 
because  it  is  almost  always  inspired  by  a  higher  motive, 
and  therefore  more  apt  to  consider  the  good  of  the 
receiver,  because  it  contains  within  itself  the  limits  to 
which  it  can  be  carried,  and  because  such  relief  is  less 
readily  sought  after  by  the  recipients. 

A  remarkable  illustration  of  variation  in  out-door 
relief  in  our  Western  States  is  seen  in  Centre  Town- 
ship, Indiana,  in  which  is  the  city  of  Indianapolis.  In 
1875  and  1876,  the  township  trustee  distributed  nearly 
$90,000  a  year.  Since  that  time,  a  new  trustee  has 
found  $8,000  a  year  to  be  sufficient.  It  seems  hardly 
doubtful  to  a  stranger  that  the  private  benevolence  of 


22  How  to  Help  the  Poor, 

Centre  Township  could  cope  successfully  with  all  the 
real  need  without  the  hitter  small  sum.  .  .  .  The  subject 
of  out-door  relief  is  too  vast  in  its  extent  and  too  in- 
tricate in  its  relations  to  be  treated  dogmatically  by  any 
one.  This  present  contribution  to  the  theme  is  sub- 
mitted in  the  spirit  of  one  open  still  to  learn  from 
those  who  differ  as  from  those  who  may  agree  with  its 
conclusions. 

These  are,  briefly :  — 

That  out-door  relief,  in  the  United  States,  as 
elsewhere,  tends  inevitably  and  surely  to  increase 
pauperism ; 

That  in  towns  and  cities  it  is  not  needed ; 

That  even  in  villages  it  can  probably  be  dispensed 
with. 

In  thinly  settled  sections,  its  evils  are  at  the  lowest 
ebb,  while  its  benefits  at  the  same  time  are  greatest. 
If  coupled  with  the  condition  of  work  in  return  for 
relief,  which  in  the  country  ought  to  be  easy  of  accom- 
plishment, out-door  relief  in  the  country  would  prob- 
ably be  free  from  serious  objection.  On  the  same 
basis,  it  is  relieved  from  its  chief  harmfulness  every- 
where. ...  In  some  States  or  sections  of  States,  the 
office  of  overseer  of  the  poor  is  at  the  bottom  of  the 
political  ladder.  The  overseers  are  chosen  for  short 
terms,  and  are  expected  to  serve  party  or  personal 
ends.  It  is  needless  to  say  that,  in  the  hands  of  such 
officers,  out-door  relief  is  an  instrument  full  of  danger 
to  the  common  weal.  Long  terms  of  office  may  help  to 
modify  the  evil,  but  there  is  no  effectual  remedy  while 
the  administration  of  the  poor  funds  is  controlled  in  the 
interest  of  politics.  Where  this  is  known  to  be  the 
case  in  any  city  or  town  or  hamlet,  for  the  sake  of 


How  Organization  Began.  23 

the  poor,  for  the  sake  of  the  locality,  for  the  sake  of 
the  country,  let  civil  service  reform  begin  there. 

The  foregoing  consideration  of  the  form 
of  organized  work  for  the  poor  brings  us 
back  to  Mrs.  X.  and  to  the  conditions  which 
made  it  a  necessity. 

A  poor  woman  came  to  her  door  one  day 
asking  help.  Remembering  her  many  dis- 
satisfactions and  disappointments  in  trying 
to  benefit  others,  Mrs.  X.  simply  took  the 
woman's  address  and  told  her  kindly  that  she 
would  inquire  further  into  her  condition.  She 
went  as  soon  as  possible  to  the  office  of  one 
of  our  oldest  and  largest  societies,  only  to  find 
the  name  as  a  recipient  among  eight  hundred 
others  who  had  been  referred  to  one  visitor. 
This  "  Case  "  was  credited  with  quarter  of  a 
ton  of  coal  and  shoes  for  a  woman  and  two 
children,  without  further  comment. 

Mrs.  X.  discovered  that  volunteer  visiting 
had  gone  out  of  fashion,  and  that  the  expert, 
with  his  four  or  eight  hundred  families  to 
visit  during  the  year,  could  not  be  expected 
to  grapple  with  any  details.  The  "  system," 
good  enough  in  itself,  had  drifted  utterly  away 
from  its  early  purpose,  and  had  almost  lost 
sight  of  Dr.  Chalmers'  wonderful  work,  which 
had  been  the  inspiration  of  its  founders. 


24  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

Mrs.  X.  then  went  to  another  society.  This 
one  was  less  catholic  in  its  grasp,  and  con- 
cerned only  respectable  widows.  She  found 
her  applicant  was  known  here  also,  and  re- 
ceived her  rent  regularly  from  this  benevolent 
fountain-head.  She  went  into  the  rooms  of  a 
sewing-circle  adjoining,  and  found  her  friend 
already  there,  returning  last  week's  sewing 
and  receiving  more.  On  her  way  home, 
Mrs.  X.  met  a  friend,  and  was  relating  her 
morning's  occupation,  when  the  lady  replied 
that  she  had  known  this  woman,  who  was  a 
widow,  for  many  years.  She  was  surprised 
to  know  of  her  call  at  Mrs.  X.'s  door,  because 
she  had  made  the  woman  understand  that  she 
herself  always  stood  ready  to  give  her  what 
she  required.  She  was  an  excellent  person, 
and  she  would  ask  her  about  it. 

On  parting  from  her  friend,  Mrs.  X.  deter- 
mined to  visit  the  woman.  Turning  into  a 
court,  she  rapped  at  a  side  door  of  a  com- 
fortable tenement.  It  was  twelve  o'clock.  A 
man  with  shirt-sleeves  rolled  up,  just  in  from 
his  morning's  work,  was  sitting  down  before 
a  dirty  table,  on  which  was  a  huge  slice  of 
fried  beefsteak  and  some  potatoes.  Two  un- 
combed children  were  playing  about  the  floor, 
and  a  general  air  of  dirt  and  disorder  pre- 


How   Organization  Began.  25 

vailed.  Excellent  health  pervaded  the  place. 
The  woman  was  somewhat  abashed  and  dis- 
comfited by  this  speedy  return  of  her  visit; 
but,  after  a  brief  explanation  from  Mrs.  X. 
that  she  wished  to  understand  her  needs  more 
clearly,  she  camg  away.  Something,  surely, 
needed  to  be  done ;  but  what  was  the  some- 
thing"? One  visitor  with  hundreds  of  cases 
could  not  prevail  against  the  evil.  Mrs.  X. 
believed  that  volunteer  visiting  might  at  least 
begin  a  reform.  The  attempt  was  made,  and 
has  proved  successful  so  far  as  it  has  gone. 

This  is  "how  organization  began," — not 
hurriedly  and  as  a  new  thing,  but  as  an  intel- 
ligent outgrowth  from  old  methods  which 
were  leading  to  no  good  end. 


III. 


WHAT  A  DISTRICT    CONFERENCE    IS,    AND 
HOW    TO    CREATE   ONE. 

In  the  government  of  a  State,  we  consider 
the  question,  Who  shall  be  its  officers  ?  to  be 
one  of  primal  importance.  So,  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  charities  in  a  city  district,  no  rules 
can  be  laid  down  which  should  for  a  moment 
challenge  our  consideration,  compared  in  sig- 
nificance with  the  necessity  of  obtaining  the 
right  persons  to  fill  the  committees.  In  the 
past,  the  question  has  been,  "Will  he  do  it?" 
in  the  future,  the  query  will  be,  "  Can  he  do 
it?"  Improvement  in  methods  has,  in  part, 
wrought  this  change  ;  but  advance  in  morality, 
more  than  all,  demands  that  the  best  force  the 
community  can  afford  shall  devote  at  least 
a  portion  of  its  energy  to  grappling  with  the 
problems  presented  by  the  unfortunate  of 
great  cities.  This  unfulfilled  labor  is  the 
religion  of  the  present  and  the  future.  It  is 
the    first    duty  of    the  Central  Board    of    any 


District  Conferences.  27 

organization,  and  one  never  to  be  set  aside 
for  matters  of  secondary  importance,  that 
persons  of  ability  be  sedulously  informed  of 
the  need  of  assistance,  and  constantly  beck- 
oned to  the  front.  Not  as  figure-heads,  nor 
to  lend  their  names,  but  to  give  such  time 
as  they  can  spare  to  strict  performance  of 
weekly  duties ;  this  being  far  more  important 
to  our  advance  than  any  gift  of  money. 
Without  underrating  what  money  can  do,  we 
have  learned  from  the  past,  as  well  as  the 
present,  that,  if  the  gifts  of  sympathy  and 
energy  are  withheld  from  the  work  of  the 
Associated  Charities,  wealth  may  be  pro- 
nounced useless  to  perform  the  service. 

The  conference  of  a  district  is  composed 
of  three  parts  :  First,  the  District  Committee, 
to  which  special  reference  has  been  made  in 
considering  the  need  of  active  intelligence  in 
this  service ;  Second,  the  Representatives  of 
various  societies  and  public  or  private  Officers 
working  among  the  poor  of  the  vicinity ;  and, 
Third,  the  Visitors.  This  body  constitutes  a 
conference.  One  of  the  valuable  effects  of 
such  a  body  has  proved  to  be  that  the  distinc- 
tive gifts  of  both  men  and  women  are  required 
to  accomplish  the  ends  proposed.  The  com- 
parative ease  with  which  we  grasp  difficulties 


28  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

in  Boston,  from  this  perfectly  natural  union,  is 
to  be  remarked.  We  have  no  separated  com- 
mittees. We  have  silently  recognized  the 
fact  that  in  this  business,  because  we  are  deal- 
ing with  social  questions  and  those  of  the 
family,  we  have  need  of  each  other. 

We  believe  in  the  value  of  a  weekly  meet- 
ing for  each  conference, —  the  committee  to 
come  together  one  hour  before  the  moment 
of  the  meeting,  in  order  to  look  over  the 
business  to  be  presented,  and  to  dispose  of 
such  cases  as  need  not  be  brought  before  the 
larger  company.  The  agent  will  have  time 
to  ask  questions  and  give  advice,  and  the 
committee  can  thus  bring  itself  into  order  and 
harmony,  which  will  serve  to  expedite  the  busi- 
ness of  the  following  hour.  I  will  not  give 
here  the  order  of  work  already  laid  down  for 
guiding  the  administration  of  a  conference. 
So  far  as  this  business  can  be  reduced  to 
form  and  put  on  paper,  it  has  been  done,  and 
may  be  found  among  the  publications  of  the 
Associated  Charities  in  Boston ;  and  we  feel 
assured  that  every  district  conference  will  find 
it  greatly  to  its  advantage  to  follow  the  printed 
plan  as  closely  as  possible. 

The  relation  between  the  agent  and  visitors 
is   one   that   has   been   often   discussed;  but 


District  Conferences.  29 

we  must  beware  of  rules  and  of  red  tape. 
We  have  to  deal  with  different  agents  and 
a  large  variety  of  visitors.  Some  excellent 
agents  are  far  less  able  to  satisfy  the  needs 
of  the  visitors  than  others.  In  such  cases 
there  may  be  special  service  of  another  kind 
which  is  remarkably  performed,  making  it  wise 
to  supply  this  gap  between  visitors  and  agent 
in  some  other  way.  Again,  the  agent  may  be 
an  excellent  visitor,  but  slow  to  make  efficient 
record  of  work  really  well  accomplished.  It 
would  then  devolve  upon  the  committee  to 
see  that  this  want  was  remedied.  A  person 
of  intelligence  and  unselfishness,  devoted  to 
the  work,  is  what  is  required  in  an  agent. 
When  these  qualities  are  given  to  the  service, 
incapacity  respecting  details,  in  whatever  direc- 
tion, should  be  voluntarily  supplied,  if  possi- 
ble, by  the  committee. 

The  work  of  the  committee  of  each  dis- 
trict conference  includes  one  branch  of  labor 
too  often  omitted  or  forgotten.  Each  member 
should  be  informed  respecting  the  public  de- 
partments of  protection  for  the  unprotected : 
what  may  be  lawfully  asked  and  received  in 
cases  of  need ;  what  shelter,  what  relief,  what 
advice,  or  what  methods  of  transportation ; 
also,  what  loans  may  be  obtained  ;   where  and 


3<d  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

how  children  may  be  cared  for,  and  the  best 
methods  for  saving. 

In  short,  the  committee  should  hold  its  seat, 
not  from  any  supposed  superior  wisdom,  but 
from  a  power  of  which  it  is  perfectly  possible 
for  persons  of  average  intelligence  to  possess 
themselves  ;  I  mean  resource,  the  ability  which 
knowledge  can  give,  prompted  by  sympathy, 
to  turn  quickly  when  called  upon  for  relief, 
and  to  answer,  "  If  the  conference  considers 
this  application  a  suitable  one,  at  this  or  that 
place  relief  maybe  obtained." 

Closely  related  to  this  question  of  organized 
administration  of  charity  in  cities  is  public 
out-door  relief,  or  the  distribution  of  money 
raised  by  taxation  for  the  city  poor,  to  which, 
under  certain  restrictions,  they  have  a  right 
by  law.  This  "right"  is  one  of  the  greatest 
of  man's  inhumanities  to  man.  How  is  the 
law  to  estimate,  for  instance,  a  woman's  capac- 
ity to  take  care  of  herself,  or  the  injury  to  her 
children  from  receiving  a  pauper's  fund  ? 
Questions  of  relief  which  visitors  find  most 
delicate  and  difficult  to  decide  are  compli- 
cated by  the  demand  upon  public  moneys 
made  by  a  large  proportion   of  the   poor.* 

In  this  country,  where  every  kind  of  labor 

*  See  quotation  from  Mr.  Low  in  previous  chapter. 


District  Conferences.  31 

is  needed,  and  more  of  it,  at  lower  rates,  is 
constantly  in  requisition,  it  is  the  blind  lead- 
ing the  blind  and  all  falling  into  the  ditch 
together  for  us  to  allow  public  money  to  be 
bestowed  in  what  are  called  settlements  by 
law,  instead  of  being  given  after  investigation, 
and  according  to  the  individual  need.  What 
the  people  require  is  education,  beginning 
with  the  lowest  forms,  in  order  that  money 
invested  in  their  behalf  shall  be  anything  but 
a  future  disgrace  to  our  nation.  By  the  lowest 
forms  of  education,  I  mean  industrial  educa- 
tion in  its  simplest  development, —  the  use  of 
the  hands  and  feet  for  some  common  good. 

It  should  be  carefully  observed  by  the  offi- 
cers of  a  district  committee  that  their  posi- 
tion, as  such,  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
management  of  loan  systems,  or  savings,  or 
tenements,  or  any  form  of  relief.  Their  busi- 
ness is  to  understand  where  such  systems 
exist,  to  discover  if  well  administered,  and  to 
keep  the  roadways  open  between  them  and 
the  needy.  Of  course,  their  influence  will  be 
invaluable  for  holding  all  such  institutions  up 
to  the  best  working-point;  but,  by  virtue  of 
their  office,  they  are  examiners  and  indicators, 
and  must  carefully  avoid  the  dangerous  mis- 
take of  losing  sight  of  their  first  duty  in  any 


2,2  Hoiu  to  Help  the  Poor. 

such  detail.  Each  member  will  have  as  much 
to  do  as  one  person  can  well  perform,  under 
ordinary  circumstances,  to  obtain  the  proper 
information  and  communicate  it,  especially 
when  we  remember  that  no  officer  is  consid- 
ered entirely  exempt  from  the  practical  expe- 
rience of  visiting  the  poor. 

The  simple  idea  of  a  conference  is  that 
various  individuals  come  together  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  each  other's  advice  and  knowl- 
edge. Thought  and  care  are  required  to 
make  such  meetings  interesting  and  profit- 
able, and  how  best  to  do  this  is  a  question 
to  be  kept  continually  before  the  committee. 
The  meeting  should  not  only  be  agreeable  to 
the  visitor  who  has  a  chance  to  talk,  but  the 
case  in  hand  should  be  made  interesting,  if 
possible,  to  the  whole  company,  which  is  apt 
to  include  some  persons  wholly  ignorant  of 
the  people  talked  about.  I  know  it  is  difficult; 
but  I  am  convinced,  if  we  keep  this  end  in 
view,  we  can  advance  much  in  this  respect. 
There  should  be  no  talking  back  and  forth 
among  the  visitors,  but  the  chairman  and 
agent  should  hold  the  business  in  their  hands 
sufficiently  to  bring  out  the  interesting  points 
in  turn  from  those  present,  giving  every  one  a 
five  minutes'  chance  during  the  afternoon  for 


District  Conferences.  2>Z 

the  benefit  of  the  whole,  and  thus  limiting  and 
passing  over  suggestions  which  belong  to  a 
more  private  consideration  of  any  case. 

Our  watchword  is  Co-operation.  Its  practi- 
cal efficacy  can  only  be  fully  understood  at  the 
conference.  A  fady  visitor  hears  the  secre- 
tary .read  the  name  of  Mrs.  Kelly,  giving 
street  and  number.  She  responds  :  "  I  found 
Mrs.  Kelly  well  ten  days  ago  when  I  called 
to  see  her  last,  but  the  baby  was  ailing  and 
needing  food  from  the  Diet  Kitchen,  which  I 
obtained  for  her.  I  have  not  been  able  to 
visit  her  since,  and  I  came  to  the  meeting  in 
the  hope  that  you  could  tell  me  how  she  is 
gfettins:  on.  The  other  children  were  all  at 
school  the  day  I  called,  and  I  could  not  see 
them." 

There  is  a  moment's  silence.  Then  the 
truant-officer  says :  "  A  week  ago,  I  found 
the  Kelly  children  weren't  at  school,  and  so 
I  looked  them  up ;  found  chicken-pox  had 
broken  out  among  them.  She  was  pretty 
down-hearted,  being  a  lone  woman,  and  no 
money  in  the  house,  because  the  sick  baby 
had  kept  her  from  going  to  work.  Said  I'd 
call  the  next  day,  but  was  detained ;  and, 
when  I  went  the  day  after,  I  couldn't  find  them. 
The  neighbors'  doors  were  locked  (they  were 


34  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

all  at  work),  and  I  couldn't  understand  it — " 
Just  then,  a  gentleman,  who  had  dropped  into 
the  meeting  half  hoping  that  he  might  hear 
something  of  this  case,  spoke  up,  and  de- 
scribed how  "  One  night  last  week,  it  must 
have  been  Thursday,  I  was  hurrying  home 
from  business  rather  late,  when  I  heard  chil- 
dren crying.  That's  a  sound  I  can't  bear 
long.  So  I  pushed  open  the  broken  door  of 
the  house  where  the  sounds  came  from,  and 
went  in.  Going  up  the  third  flight  of  stairs,  at 
last  I  found  the  room,  and  knocked.  Nobody 
answered ;  but  the  children  still  were  crying, 
so  I  went  in.  There  lay  a  woman  on  the  floor 
in  a  heavy  drunken  sleep,  just  where  she  had 
fallen  after  emptying  a  mug  which  stood  on 
the  table.  Five  hungry,  sick,  miserable  chil- 
dren were  wailing,  and  trying  to  rouse  her  in 
vain.  It  was  a  pitiful  sight,  and  what  to  do 
I  did  not  know.  Out  I  ran,  downstairs  again, 
and  asked  the  first  police-officer  I  met  where 
I  could  find  the  Society  for  Prevention  of 
Cruelty  to  Children.  He  said  he  didn't  know. 
I  told  him  he  ought  to  ;  but,  if  he  would  take 
some  money  and  carry  the  children  some 
bread  and  milk  for  their  supper,  I  would  come 
back  and  get  them,  while  he  could  take  away 
the  mother.     I  found  it  a  long  distance  to  the 


District  Conferences.  35 

office  of  the  Society,  and  by  that  time  the 
hour  was  approaching  for  the  last  train  to 
take  me  home  that  night ;  but  the  agent  was 
kind  and  prompt,  and  sent  off  at  once  to  get 
the  children.  Unfortunately,  I  have  not  been 
in  town  since,  and  could  not  hear  anything 
more  of  them  ;  so  I  thought  I  would  drop  in 
here."  Whereupon,  a  quiet  little  lady  in  the 
corner  said  :  "  I  happened  to  come  into  the 
office  just  as  you  left  it,  and  the  agent  asked 
me  to  go  with  him,  there  seemed  so  much  to 
do.  When  we  reached  Mrs.  Kelly's,  I  de- 
cided to  take  the  baby  myself.  We  carried 
the  two  younger  children  to  Auntie  Gwynne, 
while  the  agent  took  charge  of  the  two  elder. 
The  officer,  meanwhile,  was  obliged  to  carry 
the  poor  mother  to  Deer  Island." 

Our  agent  then  told  us  how  her  work  for 
the  week  had  carried  her  to  Deer  Island, 
where,  to  her  great  surprise  and  sorrow,  she 
found  Mary  Kelly,  whom  she  had  formerly 
known  as  a  good,  respectable  woman.  "  The 
poor  thing  was  terribly  abashed  and  grieved 
at  her  situation,  and  explained  how  a  neigh- 
bor, seeing  her  discouragement,  had  thought 
to  comfort  her  by  bringing  her  beer.  Little 
by  little,  yet  faster  than  she  was  aware,  the 
habit  of  taking  beer  had  grown  until  she  was 


36  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

mastered  by  it.  The  kind  of  beer,  too,  seemed 
to  have  dangerous  elements  in  it  such  as 
make  this  drink  harmful ;  and  before  she  knew 
it  her  senses  were  stolen  away,  and  she  found 
herself  at  Deer  Island.  So  I  said,  seeing  how 
wretched  she  was,  that  I  would  try  to  get  her 
transferred  on  probation  to  the  Massachu- 
setts Home  for  Intemperate  Women  in  town, 
where  her  friend  and  visitor  could  see  her. 
After  we  had  assured  ourselves  of  her  desire 
to  behave  well,  we  got  permission  from  the 
officers  of  public  institutions  to  bring  her 
back  to  town ;  and  she  is  doing  well,  and 
giving  every  promise  of  being  able  to  have  her 
home  and  children  some  day.  I  wish  the  vis- 
itor would  now  take  up  the  case  again,  and,  as 
soon  as  the  woman  ought  to  be  trusted,  help 
her  to  get  work  and  to  establish  herself  once 
more.  After  such  a  severe  lesson,  and  with  a 
kind  friend  to  watch  over  her,  I  think  this  will 
never  happen  again ;  and  she  is  longing  and 
weeping  for  her  children."  The  visitor  prom- 
ises to  go  and  see  her,  and  this  case  ends  for 
the  afternoon. 

From  this  illustration,  it  is  easy  to  see  how 
a  party  of  people  interested  in  the  same  work 
can  help  each  other.  It  is  not  often  that  all 
the  intricacies   of   a  case  can  be  followed  out 


District  Conferences.  37 

in  this  way  at  one  session,  but  it  is  striking  to 
see  how  many  can  be  settled  in  one  season. 
In  a  multitude  of  counsellors  there  is  knowl- 
edge as  well  as  safety. 

Many  of  the  Boston  districts  contain  five  or 
six  hundred  families  who  receive  aid.  Of  this 
large  number,  not  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty,  'on  an  average,  are  properly  visited  and 
cared  for  by  agent  and  visitors.  New  cases 
sent  in  as  having  applied  for  help  in  the 
street,  or  otherwise,  and  requiring  immediate 
investigation,  in  order  to  relieve  the  mind  of 
the  person  applied  to,  who  has  generously 
refrained  from  giving  because  of  our  con- 
tinual appeals  to  that  end, —  even  such  cases 
have,  in  a  few  instances,  been  suffered  to  lie 
over.  Is  it  not  easy  to  see  that  public  dissat- 
isfaction will  be  the  result  of  such  inadequacy, 
and  also  that  the  fault  lies,  not  in  the  plan, 
but  in  a  misunderstanding  of  methods  ?  How 
can  this  evil  be  rectified?  It  cannot,  of 
course,  be  accomplished  by  a  stroke  of  the 
pen,  or  in  a  moment's  time.  But  when  and 
how  shall  a  beginning  be  made  ?  We  ask 
the  agent.  The  answer  comes  promptly,  "I 
have  as  much  as  I  can  do  to  keep  the  run  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty  cases,  assist  the  visitors, 
and  keep  up  the  books."  There  seems  small 
chance  of  help  in  that  direction. 


38  Ifow  to  Help  the  Poor. 

How  then  ?  First,  Every  new  case  sent 
from  outside,  because  of  especial  application 
ami  present  need,  should  be  considered  by 
the  committee  as  a  duty  to  be  at  once  per- 
formed, either  by  one  of  their  own  body,  the 
agent,  or  the  visitors ;  one  of  the  old  cases 
being  dropped  for  that  week,  or  fortnight, 
if  necessary.  Second,  For  such  emergencies, 
a  committee  might  be  formed  to  be  styled 
"assistant  visitors/' — persons  who  are  willing 
to  be  called  upon  to  assist  the  agent  in  visits 
of  investigation,  in  addition  to  the  three  or 
four  families  regularly  under  their  care.  A 
very  small  company  of  such  helpers  will  be  of 
great  assistance  to  the  committee ;  but,  the 
larger  the  number,  the  less  chance  there  will 
be,  of  course,  for  anything  to  be  neglected. 
A  large  organization  pledges  itself  to  respond 
to  these  appeals  from  a  busy  public.  It 
exists  for  this  purpose,  and  the  execution  of 
the  labor  rests  with  the  district  committees. 
The  old  excuse  of  "  too  many  cases  in  hand  " 
must  be  set  aside.  We  are  bound  to  under- 
stand the  general  condition  of  the  district  in 
which  we  work,  and  to  remember  that  one 
applicant  has  as  much  right  to  our  attention 
as  another,  until  all  their  needs  are  perfectly 
understood  and  classified.     Of  course,  better 


District  Conferences.  39 

work  will  be  accomplished  when  we  can  con- 
fine ourselves  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  cases, 
but  that  should  be  in  the  future.  Our  first 
work  is  to  understand  the  field  as  it  lies 
before  us,  to  canvass  each  case,  to  beseech 
the  churches  who*  are  giving  alms  here  and 
there  to  send  a  visitor  to  the  conference  and 
learn  what  is  there  known  of  the  family  they 
are  aiding.  Private  missionaries,  any  one,  in 
short,  giving  either  money  or  what  is  called 
"  charity-work  "  to  any  family  within  the  juris- 
diction, should  be,  in  a  measure,  one  of  the 
district  conference,  and  persuaded  to  look 
more  closely,  perhaps,  into  the  condition  of 
their  charge,  or  to  modify  their  plan  of  pro- 
cedure materially  in  connection  with  especial 
persons. 

Another  measure  for  obtaining  knowledge 
of  families  in  the  district,  who  cannot  be  regu- 
larly visited  for  lack  of  helpers,  will  be  to 
gather  the  children  into  little  schools, —  sew- 
ing-schools, Sunday-schools,  vacation-schools, 
kitchen  garden,  kindergarten,  cooking-schools, 
or  wherever  the  committee  may  see  opportu- 
nity to  place  them, —  and  the  elders  into  indus- 
trial schools,  laundries,  sewing,  carpentry,  and 
the  like.  Last  year,  a  weekly  evening-school 
for  boys   brought  in   a  number  whose  homes 


40  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

were  quite  unknown  to  us ;  also,  at  Christmas 
and  other  festivals,  we  may  be  brought  into 
relation  to  new  families  ;  and,  if  we  confine 
our  attention  entirely  to  our  own  district,  the 
time  will  not  be  long  when  we  shall  have  the 
whole  number  of  recorded  recipients  of  relief 
in  hand,  and  soon  very  much  reduced.  But, 
if  a  beginning  is  never  made,  and  our  ener- 
gies are  spent  in  trying  to  elevate  and  educate 
the  few,  helping  them  up  very  successfully,  as 
we  may,  we  shall  find  a  large  body  straying 
about  the  same  as  ever,  begging  and  imposing 
upon  the  community,  until  we  shall  become 
only  "the  one  more  society"  so  much  dreaded 
everywhere,  and  the  end  of  organization  will 
remain  unfulfilled.  We  must  be  content  for  a 
time  to  do  more  than  we  can, —  that  is,  we  must 
do  less  well  than  we  can  for  the  few,  until  we 
understand  the  general  need  somewhat  better, 
and  have  more  help  to  grapple  with  it.  The 
rock  ahead  has  always  been  that  men  and 
women  in  this  business  lose  sight  of  the  idea, 
and  are  ensnared  in  ruts  and  in  details.  Let 
the  committee,  at  least,  hold  its  head  above 
water. 

In  this  connection,  the  experience  of  Miss 
Mary  Carpenter,  in  the  ragged  schools  of 
England,  is  worthy   our    consideration.      She 


District  Conferences.  41 

says  it  was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  she  could 
keep  attention  fixed  upon  the  lowest  strata. 
The  moment  her  children  had  opportunity, 
they  were  lifted  out  of  their  old  degradation 
and  became  a  different  class.  Teachers  and 
friends  naturally  wished  to  keep  on  with  the 
hopeful  cases  ;  but  she  was  obliged  continually, 
as  it  were,  to  plunge  her  own  hands  down  to 
the  very  bottom,  and  bring  up  those  who  had 
sunken  there.  This  also  should  be  the  work 
of  our  district  committees. 

The  foregoing  difficulties  and  how  to  meet 
them  turn  upon  a  subject  almost  too  familiar 
to  be  mentioned, —  the  need  of  more  visitors. 

"  I  feel  most  deeply,"  writes  a  friend,  "  that 
the  disciplining  of  our  immense  poor  popula- 
tion must  be  effected  by  individual  influence  ; 
and  that  this  power  can  change  it  from  a  mob 
of  paupers  and  semi-paupers  into  a  body  of 
self-dependent  workers."  Believing  this,  any 
labor  among  the  poor  becomes  not  only  a 
hope  which  is  constantly  nourished  by  suc- 
cess, but  it  also  assumes  the  form  of  public 
responsibility,  where  every  man  and  woman 
may  do  his  or  her  part.  Visiting  the  poor 
does  not  mean  entering  the  room  of  a  person 
hitherto  unknown,  to  make  a  call.  It  means 
that  we  are  invited  to  visit  a  miserable  abode 


42  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

for  the  purpose  first  of  discovering  the  cause 
of  that  misery.  A  physician  is  sometimes 
obliged  to  see  a  case  many  times  before  the 
nature  of  the  disease  is  made  clear  to  his 
mind ;  but,  once  discovered,  he  can  prescribe 
the  remedy.  How  many  visitors  fail  in  this 
long  undertaking  !  We  are  at  a  great  disad- 
vantage :  we  go  without  authority,  and  often 
without  knowledge  ;  we  are  met  sometimes 
with  distrust  and  possible  dislike.  I  can  only 
say,  in  face  of  all  failures,  the  success  has 
been  triumphant.  But,  looking  at  the  failures, 
I  am  more  and  more  persuaded  that  we  are 
working  at  too  great  a  loss.  I  mean  our  vis- 
itors too  frequently  become  discouraged,  and, 
in  army  words,  "we  lose  too  many  men."  A 
partial  cure  for  this  is  to  be  found  in  the  tene- 
ment house  system  as  introduced  by  Miss 
Octavia  Hill,  and  pursued  in  New  York  and 
Boston.  A  proposition  for  governmental  su- 
pervision, quoted  in  one  of  the  reports  of  the 
Board  of  Health,  has  been  suggested  as  pos- 
sible and  necessary.  Such  oversight  would 
assist  benevolent  work  in  the  homes  of  the 
poor,  immeasurably. 

The  value  of  organized  charity  lies  with  the 
visitors,  not  in  the  organization ;  and  as  in 
the   St.  Vincent  de   Paul  Society,  from  which 


District  Conferences.  43 

we  have  derived  so  many  suggestions,  no  offi- 
cers are  exempted  from  this  duty,  so  with  our 
district  committees, —  we  allow  no  one  to  be 
ignorant  of  it.  Constant  experience  keeps  a 
continual  sympathy  alive  between  the  com- 
mittee and  visitors.  '  They  all  labor  together ; 
therefore,  their  chief  desire  is  to  increase  their 
numbers,  seeking  to  relieve  each  other  of  too 
great  a  burden,  instead  of  the  old  habit  of 
asking  more  work  from  the  same  visitors.  In 
twenty  years  after  the  establishment  of  the 
St.  Vincent  de  Paul  Society,  Ozanam,  its 
founder,  said  with  his  dying  breath,  "  Instead 
of  eight  visitors,  we  have  grown  to  two  thou- 
sand in  Paris  alone,  and  we  visit  there  five 
thousand  families."  Is  our  labor  to  be  carried 
any  less  far  ?  I  believe  not.  Our  methods 
have  improved,  our  knowledge  upon  this  sub- 
ject has  greatened.  It  remains  for  our  faith  in 
God  and  in  humanity  to  carry  us  forward  into 
victory. 


IV. 


WHAT  A  VISITOR  MAY  DO  FOR  CHILDREN 
AND    YOUNG   PERSONS. 

"  How  to  care  for  the  children  of  the  very 
poor,  and  often  depraved,  part  of  the  popu- 
lation of  cities,"  writes  Mrs.  Lowell,  "is  one 
of  the  most  serious  of  public  questions ;  and, 
in  discussing  it,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the 
effect  to  be  produced,  not  only  upon  the  child, 
but  upon  its  parents  and  upon  the  public  at 
large.  .  .  .  The  effect  upon  the  tax-payer  and 
upon  the  hard-working  poor  man,  struggling 
to  bring  up  his  children  to  be  honest,  indus- 
trious, and  healthy,  must  not  be  ignored. 
The  tax-payer  must  not  be  required  to  give 
what  he  needs  for  his  own  family  to  support 
the  family  of  his  dissolute  neighbor,  unless 
that  family  threatens  to  be  a  public  injury; 
nor  should  the  honest  laborer  see  the  children 
of  the  drunkard  enjoying  advantages  which 
his  own  may  not  hope  for.  .  .  .  There  should 
be  a  constant   pressure   brought   to   bear  on 


What  to  do  for  Children.  45 

parents  to  contribute  toward  the  support  of 
their  children ;  and,  as  soon  as  they  are  able, 
they  should  be  required  to  take  them  back  [if 
they  have  been  placed  in  institutions],  or,  if 
unable  or  unfit  to  do  this  after  a  given 
number  of  years,  they  should  forfeit  all  claim 
to  them.  No  child  should  be  held  as  a  public 
charge  for  an  indefinite  time  and  the  parent 
have  a  right  to  reclaim  it  at  any  moment.  A 
parent  who  will  not  perform  the  duties  of  a 
parent  should  not  have  the  rights  of  a  parent." 

Dr.  Tuckerman  says:  "I  am  quite  satisfied 
that  far  the  greatest  part  of  the  abject  pov- 
erty and  of  the  recklessness  in  crime  which 
people  either  our  prisons  or  almshouses,  or 
which  is  seen  in  our  streets,  may  be  followed 
back  to  causes  which  showed  themselves 
within  the  first  fifteen  or  twenty  years  of  life, 
—  to  causes  which  at  that  period  are  within 
our  power." 

Within  our  power.  Will  the  visitors 
among  the  poor  —  the  men  and  women  who 
are  hoping  "  to  do  something  " —  bring  these 
words  home  ! 

There  is  now  a  statute  in  Massachusetts 
which  reads  as  follows  :  — 

[Acts  of  1882,  Chap.  270.] 

Section  4.  Whoever  unreasonably  neglects  to  pro- 
vide for  the  support  of  his  minor  child  shall  be  pun- 


46  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

ished  by  fine  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars,  or  by 
imprisonment  in  the  house  of  correction  not  exceeding 
six  months. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  visitor  has  the 
law  upon  his  side  in  many  cases  of  neglect. 
What  is  chiefly  required  further  is  to  see 
that  laws  of  this  nature  be  enforced.  The 
moral  sentiment  of  our  people  has  framed 
the  statutes  bravely.  It  only  remains  for 
those  who  wish  to  succor  the  unfortunate  to 
see  that  the  abused  child  obtains  the  benefit 
granted  him  by  law. 

One    of   the  forms  in  which  the  wrongs  of 

children     appear    is    in    the    neglect    of    the 

babies  of  wet  nurses.     One  who  has  made  a 

specialty  of  the  care  of  mothers  and  infants 

writes  :  — 

The  exceptional  care  and  watchfulness  required  to 
save  the  life  of  a  young  infant  separated  from  its 
mother,  and  placed  at  board  during  the  sum  Tier  months, 
can  only  be  estimated  by  those  who  have  undertaken 
such  a  responsibility.  It  would,  no  doubt,  be  better 
for  both  infant  and  mother  that  they  should  remain 
together  through  the  summer.  And  this  can  often  be 
arranged  by  having  the  mother  and  child  admitted  to 
the  Massachusetts  Infant  Asylum  or  Medford  Infant 
Asylum ;  but  the  poor  young  girl,  tempted  by  the  high 
wages  of  a  wet  nurse,  and  ignorant  of  the  danger  in- 
curred by  the  separation,  seldom  hesitates  in  her  choice. 
We  are  then  compelled  either  to  leave  the  poor  baby 


What  to  do  for  Children.  47 

to  its  fate, —  which  would  be  speedy  and  almost  certain 
death, —  or  to  expend  upon  it  an  amount  of  time,  toil, 
and  care  which  would  suffice  to  save  the  lives  of  ten 
infants  at  another  season,  with  the  result  (which  we 
have  now  learned  to  expect  almost  as  a  matter  of 
course)  that  the  mother,  removed  from  our  influence, 
separated  almost  whqJJy  from  her  child,  and  taught 
indifference  to  her  duties  and  responsibilities  by  her 
employer,  comes  to  us  at  the  end  of  the  summer  with 
an  urgent  request  that  we  will  assist  her  to  relieve  her- 
self altogether  of  the  charge  of  her  infant,  by  placing 
it  in  some  institution, —  although  a  wet  nurse  is  better 
able  to  support  her  child  than  any  of  our  patients  not 
similarly  placed.  Wet  nurses,  therefore,  cause  us  more 
trouble  than  any  of  our  other  patients,  and  are  the  most 
disappointing  of  our  cases.  But  this  need  not  be  so  if 
the  bearings  of  the  situation  were  understood  by  the 
employer,  who  would'then  co-operate  with  us  in  what  is 
for  the  real  interest  of  the  mother  and  of  her  child. 

In  such  service,  the  idea  of  the  visitor's 
true  work  is  made  evident.  She  (for  this 
would  be  a  case  for  a  woman)  is  the  assisting 
and  instructing  medium  between  the  young 
nurse  and  her  employer  on  one  hand,  and 
the  child's  questionable  fate  on  the  other. 

Cobden  said,  "  There  are  many  well-mean- 
ing people  in  the  world  who  are  not  so  useful 
as  they  might  be,  from  not  knowing  how  to  go 
to  work."  In  studying  this  subject  of  neg- 
lected children,  methods  of  work  have  been 


48  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

tried  which  bring  us  nearer  regeneration 
than  any  attempts  to  influence  the  danger- 
ous classes  in  any  other  direction.  Here  we 
know  "  how  to  go  to  work." 

"I  would  say,"  writes  Dr.  Tuckennan,  "to 
all  who  wish  to  do  good,  whether  they  have 
much  or  little  to  give  to  those  who  are  in  want, 
strive  to  save  at  least  one  truant,  vagrant, 
or  vicious  child,  who,  if  no  friendly  hand  be 
stretched  out,  will  fall  into  the  abyss  either  of 
pauperism   or  crime." 

The  taking  of  children  from  miserable 
homes  in  tenement  houses  during  the  summer 
and  sending  them  away  for  a  week  or  two 
"gives  a  look  almost  of  health  "  to  some  who 
were  pinched  and  wretched  to  look  upon. 
Air  does  much,  and  milk  and  oat-meal,  instead 
of  tea  and  bad  bread,  do  the  rest. 

"  That  these  children  are  alive  at  all,  that 
fatherhood  and  motherhood  are  allowed  to  be 
the  right  of  drunkards  and  criminals  of  every 
grade,  is  a  problem  whose  present  solution 
passes  any  human  power,  but  which  all  lovers 
of  their  kind  must  sooner  or  later  face.  .  .  . 
Hopeless  as  the  outlook  often  seems,  salva- 
tion for  the  future  of  the  masses  lies  in  these 
children.  Not  in  a  teaching  which  gives  them 
merely  the  power  to  grasp  at  the  mass  of  sen* 


What  to  do  for  Children.  49 

sational  reading,  .  .  .  but  in  a  practical  train- 
ing which  shall  give  the  boys  trades  .  .  .  and 
the  girls  suitable  occupations." 

Our  prosperity  seems  to  be  still  too  great  to 
allow  young  women  .to  feel  any  necessity  to  go 
into  domestic  service  ;  or  the  reason  may  be 
a  moral  one,  and  lie  deeper.  The  labors  per- 
formed in  bag-factories  and  other  factories 
and  shops  are  certainly  quite  as  heavy  and 
less  refining  than  those  of  household  service. 
"To  be  a  shop-girl  seems  the  highest  ambi- 
tion " ;  but  the  steps  downward  from  this  am- 
bition are  frightfully  easy.  It  is,  however,  a 
good  beginning  toward  the  cure  of  the  evil  to 
have  it  widely  recognized,  and  to  find  a  grow- 
ing respect  for  household  knowledge,  espe- 
cially for  the  fine  art  of  cooking. 

House-keepers'  classes  are  forming  gradu- 
ally, where  young  girls  from  ten  to  fifteen  are 
taught  everything  except  cooking,  that  requir- 
ing a  separate  foundation.  To  get  girls  into 
such  schools,  if  only  for  a  few  weeks,  often 
develops  tastes  and  capacities  which  they 
could  not  previously  know  they  possessed,  and 
by  which  their  whole  lives  are  lifted  from  the 
old  degradations. 

For  unmanageable  girls  and  those  who 
must  be  sent  to  institutions,  we  have  learned 


50  Hour  to  Help  the  Poor. 

after  sad  experience  that  a  great  deal  remains 
to  be  done.  In  Massachusetts,  the  Dorches- 
ter Industrial  School  for  Girls  took  the  lead  in 
inaugurating  a  system  of  individual  guardian- 
ship. This  plan  has  resulted  in  a  company  of 
State  Auxiliary  Visitors,  who  aim  to  hold  per- 
sonal guardianship  over  every  girl  graduating 
from  the  public  reform  schools  and  institu- 
tions. "  One  whole  year  before  the  Auxiliary 
Visitors  began  their  work  for  the  wards  of  the 
State,  the  Hampden  County  Children's  Aid 
Association,  proposed  and  created  by  Mrs. 
Clara  T.  Leonard,  had  taken  every  child  from 
the  almshouse,  and  provided  for  all  children 
who  might  come  upon  the  county  in  future, 
by  securing  committees  in  every  town  who 
should  seek  out  homes  and  watch  over  the 
children  when  placed.  This  society  has  the 
right  of  legal  guardianship  over  its  wards, 
granted  by  the  legislature.  A  certain  amount 
is  paid  by  the  almshouse  toward  the  board  of 
those  children  thus  placed  out  who  are  too 
young  to  earn  their  own  board  and  clothes." 
The  report  of  Mrs.  Nassau  Senior,  of  Eng- 
land, a  few  years  ago,  describing  the  lack  of 
power  in  girls  trained  in  institutions  to  stand 
up  and  take  their  places  in  the  world,  first 
drew   attention   seriously   to   this  great  topic. 


What  to  do  for  Children.  5 1 

Above  all,  such  girls  need  friends ;  and,  with- 
out them,  they  are  seen  to  sink  down  into  the 
great  "criminal  sea,"  which  has  been  largely 
made  up  of  graduates  from  public  institutions. 
The  stories  told  by  our  New  England  visitors 
are  touching  and  "interesting  beyond  words. 
Compared  with  this  work,  how  petty  other 
occupations  seem ! 

We  will  turn  now  to  the  consideration  of 
another  class  of  neglected  youth,  and  recall 
the  apparently  harmless  gift  of  a  few  cents 
given  to  a  boy  by  Mrs.  X.  Such  gifts  to 
street  children  are  sometimes  a  fountain  of 
life-long  evil.  If,  however,  instead  of  this 
baleful  response,  we  listen  to  the  real  wants 
of  the  little  child,  and  gather  him  up  into  the 
arms  of  love,  we  have  already  learned  that 
much  will  be  accomplished.  For  those  who 
have  not  yet  learned  "how  to  do  it,"  the 
following  truth,  pronounced  by  high  author- 
ity, will  at  least  show  where  we  must  abstain 
from  doing.  "  Every  child,"  says  Dr.  Tucker- 
man,  "  who  is  a  beggar,  almost  without  excep- 
tion, will  become  a  vagrant,  and  probably  a 
thief." 

"  In  Hamburg,  at  one  time,"  writes  Mr. 
Kellogg,  "  a  police  regulation  went  so  far  as 
to   forbid    almsgiving   in    the    street."       Such 


52  Horn  to  Help  the  Poor. 

measures  in  America  would  be  neither  prof- 
itable nor  desirable ;  but  what  is  seen  to 
be  a  necessity  is  that  public  opinion  shall 
recognize  the  wrong-doing-  in  such  careless 
response  to  those  who  appeal  to  us  in  their 
misery.  Our  hope  is  in  and  for  the  children; 
yet  many  a  mother  with  four  or  five  little  ones, 
from  whom  she  must  be  away  all  day,  will 
lock  them  up  together  in  a  room,  under  the 
care  of  the  eldest,  until  her  return.  One  of 
the  duties  of  a  friend  should  be  to  prevent 
this  locking  up  of  children ;  because  there  are 
both  nurseries  and  kindergartens  where  the 
little  ones  can  be  sent,  besides  the  common 
schools  for  those  over  five  years  of  age.  For 
the  mother,  eager  to  get  to  her  own  work,  the 
difficulty  of  preparing  little  children  for  school 
so  early  is  certainly  serious.  But  if  she  be 
friendly  to  the  idea,  and  will  take  the  baby 
to  the  nursery  as  she  goes,  some  kind  neigh- 
bor will  often  help  the  others  on  their  way. 
Teachers  of  kindergartens  will  sometimes  call 
for  a  child  who  has  no  other  chance  of  getting 
to  school. 

Although  no  one  case  is  just  like  another, 
human  nature  being  infinite  in  its  variety,  it 
will  still  be  useful  to  study  ways  of  relief  em- 
ployed by  others,  and  to  see  what  has  been 


What  to  do  for  Children.  53 

accomplished.  In  the  hope  of  gaining  use- 
fulness in  this  way,  the  following  history  is 
related. 

There  was  a  family,  living  in  a  certain  dis- 
trict, where  there  were  two  little  girls,  seven 
and  nine  years  oTd.  They  were  under  the 
care  oi  their  aunt,  who  had  married  their 
grandfather,  and  she  held  papers  for  the 
guardianship  of  the  children.  She  was  a 
French  Canadian,  speaking  little  or  no  Eng- 
lish, but  expressing  great  anxiety  for  the 
good  of  her  wards  to  every  one  who  came 
near  her.  She  was  a  Protestant,  and  an  ex- 
cellent beggar  in  her  church  and  out  of  it. 
Even-body  loved  to  be  kind  and  generous  to 
her,  both  for  her  own  sake  and  the  children's; 
but  one  day  the  grandmother  fell  ill,  and  then 
the  friendly  visitor  who  was  appointed  by  a 
conference  of  the  Associated  Charities  was 
able   to  understand    the  case  more  perfectly. 

The  family  was  found  to  consist  of  the 
grandmother  and  her  husband,  also  her  father, 
a  son  eighteen  years  old,  and  the  two  girls 
now  nine  and  eleven.  They  were  in  debt ; 
but,  in  spite  of  this  fact,  they  had  a  family  of 
pets :  there  were  many  poodle-dogs,  big  and 
little,  a  parrot,  a  cat,  and  canary-birds ;  and 
one  day  a  woman,  coming  in  to  warm  herself 


54  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

by  their  fireside,  left  her  baby,  never  calling 
for  it  again ;  so  the  baby  was  included  in  the 
family.  Four  boarders  were  found  to  be  also 
of  the  company ;  and  these  eleven  human 
beings,  with  their  pets,  inhabited  four  rooms. 
The  two  girls  cooked  all  the  meals  for  the 
family  of  eleven  persons.  They  were  seldom 
allowed  to  go  to  school ;  and  it  was  the  grand- 
mother's excuses  in  this  particular  which  first 
aroused  suspicion  with  regard  to  the  case. 
When  they  did  go,  they  had  a  habit  of  rushing 
down  two  flights  of  stairs,  past  the  door  of  a 
crazy,  drunken  woman,  whom  they  dreaded, 
and  out  into  the  street,  trembling.  On  their 
return,  piles  of  the  day's  dishes  awaited  their 
washing.  The  household  duties  often  kept 
them  at  work  until  eleven  at  night,  and  before 
six  the  next  morning  they  must  be  up  to  get 
breakfast.  They  were  on  speaking  acquaint- 
ance with  all  the  men  in  the  market-stalls. 
The  boarders  would  get  into  fights  with  one 
another,  and  the  girls  were  taught  that  they 
must  not  call  in  the  police,  and  were  even 
shown  how  to  keep  the  officers  away.  The 
grandmother  also  instructed  them  to  lie  to 
the  boarders  and  others,  when  any  advan- 
tage could  be  gained ;  and  their  cJorh.es  were 
utterly  neglected. 


What  to  do  for  Children.  55 

"Imagine,"  writes  one  who  knew  the  cir- 
cumstances well,  "  these  girls,  with  refined  and 
affectionate  natures  which  made  them  favor- 
ites everywhere,  leading  such  a  life,  and  ruled 
by  a  woman  whose  bursts  of  temper,  profanity, 
and  coarseness  made  her  a  terror  to  those 
who  did  not  know  her  cowardly  spirit.  The 
family  had  better  means  of  support  than  many 
others,  and  resources  which,  if  developed, 
might  have  made  them  respectably  indepen- 
dent. But,  in  spite  of  three  years  of  the  com- 
bined influence  of  church  and  charity  visitors, 
instead  of  the  grandparents  working  harder, 
they  overworked  the  children  in  the  house- 
hold service,  taught  them  to  beg  and  deceive, 
surrounded  them  with  improper  associates, 
and  deprived  them  of  their  schooling.  The 
result  was  the  girls  were  growing  up  to  lead 
unhealthful,  dependent,  deceitful,  ignorant, 
and  possibly  still  more  degraded  lives.  Va- 
rious ways  were  then  tried  to  obtain  a  peace- 
ful separation  of  the  children  from  their 
grandmother,  but  without  success.  Hearing 
the  report  of  the  visitor,  the  conference  asked 
that  all  '  relief '  might  be  withdrawn  from  the 
family.  This  resulted  in  the  grandmother's 
allowing  one  of  the  girls  to  be  put  into  a  school 
supported  by  her  church   in  a  distant  town  ; 


56  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

but  in  a  short  time  she  went  secretly  and  en- 
ticed the  child  away.  By  this  time,  the  con- 
stant labor  of  several  visitors  had  given  us 
the  necessary  evidence,  and  truant  officers, 
relief-givers,  and  visitors  all  agreed  that  the 
time  had  come  when  it  was  necessary  to  take 
these  children  from  their  home  by  force. 
Assisted  by  the  Massachusetts  Society  for  the 
Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children,  this  was 
done,  and  the  girls  were  placed  in  a  public 
institution. 

"  We  had  now  checked  the  '  old  charity ' 
which  gives  outward  relief,  but  develops  no 
inward  resources;  and  we  had  removed  the 
children  from  the  fearful  influences  which 
such   charity  often   fosters. 

"  The  '  new  charity  '  had  taken  these  children 
away  from  the  only  home  that  belonged  to 
them,  and  had  incurred  the  responsibility, 
therefore,  of  providing  a  better  one.  We 
had  placed  the  girls  in  the  institution,  be- 
cause it  is  one  of  the  places  which  serve  as 
hospitals  for  the  moral  diseases  of  children. 
As  soon  as  the  Superintendent  thought  it 
wise,  the  elder  girl  was  placed  in  a  country 
family,  which  served  as  a  convalescent  home  ; 
but  the  child's  moral  sickness  showed  itself 
by  unmistakable  symptoms,  so  that  her  return 


What  to  do  for  Children.  57 

to  the  '  Home '  soon  became  necessary. 
There  she  remained  some  time  longer,  until 
it  seemed  well  to  try  again,  especially  as  an 
excellent  place  opened  for  her, —  a  home 
which  we  knew  would  give  her  the  combined 
love  and  wisdom*  so  essential  to  the  develop- 
ment, of  a  child.  After  five  weeks,  the  lady 
wrote  that  she  had  seen  nothing  like  deceit 
in  her,  and  thought  her  far  above  the  average 
girl.  An  opportunity  soon  offered  to  send  the 
sister  to  the  family  of  a  near  neighbor,  and 
the  result  proved  satisfactory.  It  is  quite 
possible  further  changes  may  become  neces- 
sary with  one  or  the  other,  but  the  way  seems 
fair  now  to  launch  the  girls  upon  a  respec- 
table and  independent  life. 

"  Let  us  return  for  a  moment  to  the  grand- 
mother, thus  suddenly  bereft  of  her  children. 
A  chance  was  found  for  her  at  once  to  support 
herself  by  fine  laundry  work,  but  this  she  did 
not  accept.  It  was  then  decided  to  leave  her 
in  the  care  of  her  church  people,  who  now 
report  her  as  supporting  herself  and  living 
independent  of  relief." 

"  It  were  useless,"  continues  the  faithful 
friend  who  has  recorded  this  history,  "to 
recount  all  these  details,  unless  we  can  arrive 
at  some  principles  of  action  and  plans  for  the 


58  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

future  provision  of  children  thus  rudely  torn 
from  their  natural  protectors. 

"  These  principles  may  be  ranged  under  five 
heads  :  — 

"  1  st.  The  only  just  reason  for  taking  chil- 
dren from  their  natural  homes  is  to  lift  them 

OUt    of    MORAL    POVERTY.       MATERIAL    POVERTY 

alone  is  not  sufficient  cause. 

"  2d.  When  there  is  sign  of  moral  disease, 
children  may  be  placed  in  some  of  the  numer- 
ous institutions  or  homes  provided  for  them, 
which  serve  as  hospitals  for  the  treatment  of 
such  diseases. 

"3d.  Children  should  not  be  allowed  to 
stay  too  long  in  these  institutions  or  homes, 
because  they  will  become  entirely  dependent 
upon  others,  and  unable  to  act  for  them- 
selves. One  year  may  be  fixed  as  the  longest 
term.  They  should  then  be  placed  out  in 
families  for  convalescence. 

"  4th.  If  the  moral  disease  makes  its  ap- 
pearance again,  the  children  should  be  re- 
turned to  the  home  for  further  hospital  treat- 
ment. 

"5th.  In  selecting  a  home  in  a  private 
family,  great  care  should  be  taken  to  find 
one  where  the  children  will  be  taken  in  a 
measure   for  their   own  sake,  not  as  servants 


What  to  do  for  Children.  59 

merely.  If  possible,  brothers  and  sisters 
should  be  placed  so  near  that  their  attach- 
ment for  each  other  will  be  cherished." 

We  have  the  record  of  many  families  where 
the  children  have  been  taken  away  from 
drunken  and  unfit  parents ;  but,  unfortunately, 
the  story  does  not  often  extend  beyond  the 
Marcella  Street  Home  or  some  such  hospital. 
Surely,  it  is  strange  that  visitors  should  be 
content  to  stop  at  this  critical  part  of  their 
work,  when  one  year  flies  so  swiftly  away  and 
a  second  in  any  institution  will  possibly  rob  a 
child  of  the  power  to  stand  alone. 

The  following  brief  history  will  be  an  excel- 
lent guide  and  encouragement  to  many  a 
visitor  who  is  looking  upon  the  career  of 
some  young  girl  with  dismay,  if  not  with 
despair. 

A  young  American  girl,  Mary,  just  twelve 
years  old,  excited  the  strong  interest  of  one 
of  my  friends.  Her  parents  were  intemper- 
ate, and  were  living  at  the  North  End  of 
Boston.  She  was  handsome,  fond  of  excite- 
ment and  of  having  her  own  way,  like  many 
bright  girls,  and  she  had  no  restraining  influ- 
ences at  home, —  if  the  place  of  her  abode 
deserved  that  name. 

After  visiting  the  family  nearly  two  years, 


60  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

all  the  time  having  in  mind  a  desire  to  get 
Mary  to  go  to  service  in  some  kind  family, 
my  friend  persuaded  the  father  and  mother  to 
allow  the  girl  to  go  where  she  would  earn  her 
board.  She  had  been  getting  into  wild  habits 
and  with  bad  companions.  The  summer  was 
approaching  for  the  second  time  when  a  reluc- 
tant consent  was  won  from  them ;  but,  after  a 
few  weeks  of  absence,  Mary  became  unhappy, 
and  during  the  summer  vacation  of  her  visitor 
she  returned  to  Boston.  The  second  autumn 
found  Mary  in  a  worse  condition  than  ever 
before.  She  had  passed  the  summer  in  such 
amusements  as  the  North  End  afforded  to  a 
reckless  little  girl.  She  had  sufficient  pride  to 
be  wretched  in  the  despicable  home  afforded 
her  by  drunken  parents,  yet  her  friend  did 
not  wish,  till  other  means  failed,  to  deprive 
them  forcibly  of  their  guardianship.  The 
teachers  at  her  school,  and  others,  agreed  in 
calling  her  the  worst  girl  of  her  age  they 
knew,  and  pronounced  their  opinion  that  she 
could  not  be  got  out  of  Boston  except  under 
arrest.  Her  friends  felt  it  would  be  useless 
to  put  her  at  service  anywhere  where  she 
was  not  compelled  to  stay,  and  her  character 
prevented  her  admission  to  the  Dorchester 
School. 


What  to  do  for  Children.  61 

An  application  was  then  made  to  the  Chil- 
dren's Aid  Society,  which  places  children  in 
families  where  they  will  be  taught  and  strictly 
watched  over.  This  society  agreed  to  take 
charge  of  the  chijd,  and  promised  to  have  a 
home  ready  for  her  if  the  father  and  mother 
would*  sign  a  paper  giving  that  society  the 
guardianship  for  the  next  four  years,  and  if 
the  girl  would  consent  to  go. 

Here,  then,  was  a  case  for  influence,  and 
my  friend  wrote  to  Mary's  father  to  come  to 
see  her.  This  he  did  not  do,  but  sent  a 
friend  in  his  stead,  to  say  that  he  would  not 
give  up  his  daughter.  The  deputy  proved  a 
true  friend  of  the  family,  and,  being  a  man  of 
good  sense,  listened  to  the  visitor.  He  was 
easily  persuaded  by  her  that  the  proposed 
plan  was  the  best  chance  for  the  girl,  there- 
fore he  undertook  to  make  the  father  change 
his  mind.  He  succeeded  in  so  far  as  to  get 
his  consent  to  see  my  friend,  and  the  inter- 
view resulted  in  the  signing  of  the  paper  by 
his  wife  and  himself,  giving  up  the  guardian- 
ship of  their  daughter  till  she  should  reach 
the  age  of  sixteen. 

The  next  point  was  to  get  Mary's  consent, 
as  the  parents  refused  to  compel  her ;  finally, 
the    friend    of    the    family    and    the    visitor 


62  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

together  persuaded  her,  also,  although  she 
knew  she  was  going  to  a  lonely  farm-house 
where  she  must  work  and  could  never  come  to 
Boston.  Her  evil  companions  did  all  in  their 
power  to  keep  her;  but  she  went,  because, 
when  it  was  fairly  put  before  her,  she  did 
wish  in  her  heart  to  be  good. 

The  visitor  took  her  to  her  new  home  in  the 
uninviting  November  season.  She  has  be- 
haved on  the  whole  extremely  well,  and  the 
effect  on  her  parents  has  been  excellent. 
They  were  sobered  by  Mary's  loss,  and  for 
the  sake  of  her  younger  sister  are  striving  for 
a  better  life  at  home. 

Parents  who  cannot  govern  themselves  are 
naturally  unfitted  for  the  guidance  of  their 
offspring.  Girls  are  to  be  found  everywhere 
who  are  utterly  untaught  in  any  business  of 
life.  They  have  been  compelled  to  go  to 
school,  but  they  are  ignorant  of  any  useful 
service.  They  pick  rags  and  sew  in  tailors' 
shops,  or,  if  they  are  especially  fortunate,  get 
into  a  store ;  but  these  places  are  over- 
crowded, and  they  can  earn  a  mere  pittance 
by  such  pursuits.  Wherever  a  visitor  can 
rescue  a  girl  from  such  a  life  and  cause  her 
to  be  trained  to  some  useful  calling,  a  val- 
uable work   has   been    accomplished.     There 


What  to  do  for  Children.  63 

are  many  training-schools  in  and  near  Boston, 
besides  the  best  of  training  which  a  well- 
disposed  girl  can  always  receive  in  the  family 
of  a  good,  motherly  woman. 

We  have  been  informed  by  the  statistics 
of  the  Labor  Bureau  that  there  are  twenty 
thousand  homeless  young  women  in  Boston 
whose  wages  average  only  $4.00  per  week. 
The  visitor  should  learn  this  statement  by 
heart,  and  try  to  save  as  many  girls  as  pos- 
sible from  this  hard  fate.  "  A  little  self- 
control  would  raise  the  poor  into  the  ranks 
of  those  who  are  really  wanted  and  who  have 
made  their  way  from  the  brink  of  pauperism 
to  a  secure  place,  and  one  where  they  are 
under  better  influences.  Above  all  is  this 
true  of  the  children.  A  little  self-control 
would  enable  the  daughters  of  most  of  these 
people  to  rise  into  the  class  of  domestic  ser- 
vants ;  and  their  sons,  instead  of  remaining 
Street-sellers,  would  soon  learn  a  trade  or  go 
to  sea,  if  they  cared  to  do  regular  work." 

There  are  many  societies,  plans,  and  laws 
for  the  protection  and  education  of  children ; 
but  the  difficulty  of  supplanting  or  supple- 
menting the  work  of  a  parent  is  great,  and 
should  be  so.  Where  parents  can  by  any 
means  be  brought  to  support  and  guide  their 


64  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

own  offspring,  it  should  be  our  idea  to  assist 
them  to  do  this,  since  it  is  nature's  law.  No 
help  given  is  so  sure  of  success  as  the  per- 
sonal oversight  of  friendly  visitors  who  feel  a 
certain  power  behind  their  friendship.  The 
Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Chil- 
dren, our  excellent  truant-officers,  the  news- 
boys' evening-school,  the  Law  and  Order 
League,  all  these  are  ready  to  strengthen 
their  hands.  One  of  the  most  hopeful  meth- 
ods of  dealing  with  street-boys  is,  however, 
to  send  them  away  on  farms.  From  the 
streets  of  New  York  over  sixty  thousand  boys 
have  been  sent  into  the  West,  who  are  doing 
well.  What  benevolent  plan  can  give  a  better 
showing  than  this  ? 

Let  no  visitor  despair  of  doing  something 
to  improve  the  condition  of  neglected  chil- 
dren, especially  one  who  lives  where  there  is. 
a  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Children.  Such  a  society  is,  however,  a 
helper,  and  not  a  place  where  the  burden 
may  be  dropped  by  the  visitors.  If  the  offi- 
cers find  a  friend  who  is  willing  to  go  with 
them  to  the  judge  and  bear  witness  to  the 
miseries  of  which  they  complain,  they  will 
find  not  only  co-workers,  but  a  genuine  power 
to  assist  and  relieve.     If,  however,  the  visitor 


What  to  do  for  Children.  65 

drops  the  case  into  their  hands,  and  it  be- 
comes one  of  thousands,  it  must  not  only  wait 
its  turn  for  examination,  but,  for  lack  of 
proper  testimony,  it  may  never  come  to  justice 
at  all. 

The  hearing  in  neglect  cases  is  not  public, 
and  no  lady  need  hesitate  to  appear.  It  is 
given  in  a  private  room ;  and,  as  hearsay 
evidence  is  never  received, —  if  the  visitors 
really  wish  to  help  the  children,  it  will  largely 
depend  upon  themselves  to  get  what  is  re- 
quired.    All  complaints  are  confidential. 

Where  the  parents  of  children  have  proved 
themselves  unfit  for  their  charge,  the  visitor 
may,  through  the  Probate  Court,  obtain  guar- 
dianship and  custody  of  such  children.  This 
gives  power  to  find  a  good  home,  and  to 
advise  for  their  future. 

"  Can  I  do  anything  more  in  this  case  ?  "  a 
visitor  will  ask  who  has  taken  a  woman  with 
three  children  to  visit,  and  who  has  been 
fortunate  enough  to  find  work  for  the  mother. 
Yes,  we  answer.  Do  not  feel  this  case  is 
finished  until  each  of  those  children  is  in  a 
fair  way  to  make  industrious  and  useful  mem- 
bers of  society.  The  inherited  paupers  of 
Europe  must  die  and  be  crushed  out  on  our 
soil ;  their  children  should  become  our  useful 
and  busy  compatriots. 


c3 


V. 
SUGGESTIONS   IN   BEHALF   OF    THE   AGED. 

Peggy  O'Hara  is  now  fifty-eight  years  of  age, 
but  she  is  feebler  than  her  years  would  seem 
to  justify.  With  her,  as  with  so  many  others, 
poverty,  combined  with  ignorance,  and  their 
attendant  ills,  have  induced  premature  old  age. 
Peggy's  husband  went  to  the  war  in  i860,  and 
soon  returned  ill.  Her  father  lived  with  them 
from  the  time  he  was  sixty  until  he  became 
eighty  years  of  age,  contributing  very  little  to 
their  support  during  this  period.  Peggy  could 
do  only  the  coarsest  sewing;  and  it  was  through 
her  bad  sewing  of  the  soldiers'  shirts,  by  which 
she  was  trying  to  maintain  herself  and  her 
father  while  her  husband  was  away,  that  I 
made  her  acquaintance.  In  the  beginning,  it 
was  necessary  to  compel  her  to  take  out  and 
do  over  a  large  part  of  her  work  ;  to-day,  she 
sews  very  neatly,  but  always  slowly.  She 
could  find  very  little  else  to  do,  however,  during 
the  long   period  when   she  was    confined    at 


Care  of  the  Aged.  67 

home  chiefly,  with  the  care  of  both  husband 
and  father,  and  it  was  impossible  for  her  to 
meet  the  family  expenses  without  help.  One 
friend  paid  her  rent,  the  overseers  found  the 
family  entitled  to  a  "  settlement,"  and  there- 
fore gave  them  certain  punctual  relief,  and 
many  givers  of  occasional  doles  appeared 
who  managed  to  keep  them  comfortable.  At 
length,  the  father  and  husband  died,  also 
many  of  the  old  friends ;  but  begging  had 
been  found  very  lucrative  and  quite  agreeable. 
Peggy  wished  to  continue  her  old  plan  of  life, 
with  the  hope  of  reaping  a  good  harvest  for 
herself ;  but  the  friend  on  whom  she  chiefly 
depended,  having  the  needs  of  many  depend- 
ent persons  upon  her  hands,  and  seeing  at 
last  by  her  experience  that  there  was  a  better 
way,  resolved  that  Peggy  must  now  try  to 
maintain  herself.  She  stated  this  necessity 
frankly  to  her,  and  said,  as  she  was  now  left 
to  herself,  she  must  manage  to  earn  what  was 
necessary  for  her  own  support.  She  did  not 
require  so  much  room,  and  could  take  some 
one  to  lodge  with  her.  Peggy  stoutly  opposed 
the  suggestion  ;  but,  coming  shortly  after  to 
her  friend,  in  a  depressed  frame  of  mind, — 
having  been  sent  for,  indeed,  because  she  was 
found  begging  in  spite  of  remonstrance, —  she 


68  Ho%v  to  Help  the  Poor. 

said  that  she  could  not  live  peaceably  with 
anybody  she  could  think  of ;  other  women 
would  wrong  her  and  make  her  life  miserable. 
Her  friend  listened  (understanding  Peggy  well 
enough  to  know  this  was  quite  true),  then  an- 
swered, "  Well,  Peggy,  why  shouldn't  you  take 
a  little  child  to  look  after,  some  one  of  the 
many  motherless  little  ones  we  are  constantly 
hearing  of  ? "  Peggy  thought  not,  and  her 
friend  was  for  the  moment  a  little  discouraged 
with  regard  to  finding  the  right  thing  for  her. 
But,  about  six  weeks  later,  going  to  her  rooms 
one  day  to  see  how  she  was  getting  on  without 
any  relief  except  what  the  overseers  granted 
in  view  of  her  settlement,  she  found  Peggy 
unusually  comfortable  and  bright,  and  a  little 
baby  asleep  in  a  cradle  in  the  corner.  No 
words  could  express  Peggy's  satisfaction.  At 
last,  she  had  found  something  to  love  and  care 
for,  and  her  whole  appearance  was  changed. 
The  money  she  received  for  its  care  was  just 
about  enough  to  pay  the  room  rent  and  for 
the  baby's  food,  and  this  made  her  comfort- 
able with  the  bit  of  washing  and  coarse  sew- 
ing she  found  weekly.  But,  apart  from  this, 
even  if  no  money  had  come  from  it,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  child  itself  proved  beneficent  in 
bringing  cheerfulness   into   a   poor,    arid   life, 


Care  of  the  Aged.  69 

which  had  lost  courage  and  hope  and  desire, 
and  was  sinking  under  the  early  approach  of 
age. 

Peter  Church,  as  he  is  sometimes  called,  is 
an  old  Italian  of  tfae  better  class  of  poor.  We 
found  him  living  utterly  alone,  in  great  filth 
and  destitution.  He  said  ten  cents  a  day  was 
all  his  food  cost,  because  he  lived  chiefly  on 
macaroni  which  he  cooked  himself.  He 
would  go  to  gentlemen  whom  he  knew  a 
little,  on  the  streets  or  at  their  offices,  and 
ask  a  small  sum  for  his  support.  He  had 
once  taught  his  native  tongue  in  a  rudimen- 
tary way,  but  his  sight  had  failed ;  and  he 
liked  to  roam  the  streets  at  his  own  will  until 
he  was  tired,  and  then  at  night  he  would 
sometimes  make  a  little  fire  and  play  the 
flute.  When  he  first  came  to  our  notice,  he 
was  becoming  feeble.  It  was  getting  unsafe 
for  him  to  go  about  alone,  lest  he  should  be 
thrown  down.  He  was  losing  strength  from 
cold  and  lack  of  nourishment.  Nevertheless, 
we  discovered  that  he  had  once  tried  the 
shelter  of  an  institution  for  a  few  weeks,  and 
had  been  so  unhappy  at  the  loss  of  his  free- 
dom and  the  constant  sight  of  misery  that  he 
ran  away  on  the  earliest  opportunity.  It  was 
a  puzzle  what  to  do.     For  a  few  months,  some 


70  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

friend  to  whom  he  had  applied  for  help  gave 
the  money  to  an  interested  visitor,  to  be  paid 
out  in  the  'very  small  portions  he  required. 
Meanwhile,  many  plans  were  suggested  for 
his  shelter  and  protection  ;  but  to  all  of  them 
the  independent  old  man  turned  a  deaf  ear. 
At  length,  in  a  kindly  talk,  it  was  discovered 
that  the  sufferer  had  relatives  in  another  city. 
An  account  of  his  condition  was  written  to 
them,  and  very  soon  a  reply  came,  saying, 
though  they  were  still  struggling  themselves, 
they  would  each  subscribe  seventy-five  cents 
per  week,  the  total  proving  sufficient  for  the 
old  man's  modest  board  and  maintenance. 

The  friendly  visitor  takes  sincere  pleasure 
in  seeing  this  money  paid  out  to  a  needy 
family  willing  to  take  care  of  him  for  the 
remuneration  received. 

It  is  a  cause  for  wonder  to  see  how  many 
aged  and  infirm  persons  are  left  to  pine  away 
in  the  attics  of  cities,  forgotten  by  their  own 
people,  and  receiving  fifty  cents  a  week  to 
pay  their  rent  from  some  relief  society.  It 
is  not  astonishing  that  good  honest  Betty 
Higdons  do  not  wish  to  go  to  the  almshouse : 
but  there  are  many  cases  where  intemperance 
and  uncleanliness  have  set  in,  induced  by 
their  feeble  and  solitary  condition  ;  and  where, 


Care  of  the  Aged.  71 

when  kindly  persuasions  are  brought  to  bear, 
they  will  go  to  Austen  Farm  or  some  other 
retreat,  and  once  having  made  the  change  are 
grateful  and  pleased. 

I  found  two  sisters  living  in  a  scant,  squalid 
fashion.  They  were  Scotch  by  birth,  and 
had  been  dressmakers,  but  had  outlived  their 
custom  and  their  usefulness.  They  were 
getting  small  doles  which  they  chiefly  spent 
in  drink  "to  keep  up  their  spirits."  They 
would  not  tolerate  the  idea  of  being  sent 
away,  at  first.  The  visitor  was  firm  about  it, 
all  relief  was  cut  off,  and  they  cannot  now 
express  the  gratitude  they  feel  for  the  care 
and  shelter  they  receive  at  a  public  refuge, 
near  Boston,  for  aged  women. 

"  Among  those  who  have  fallen  from  fort- 
une into  utter  penury,  and  suffered  in 
silence,"  writes  a  friend,  "are  the  Grays, 
two  old  brothers,  Englishmen, —  one  a  good 
classical  scholar,  and  the  other  of  such  abil- 
ity that  he  formerly  earned  several  thousand 
dollars  a  year  in  business.  He  was  ruined 
by  a  partner.  I  found  him,  one  day,  warm- 
ing himself  by  the  fire  of  a  sickly  little  old 
woman  who  befriended  him  and  cooked  his 
rye  or  corn  meal  once  a  day.  He  has  eaten 
meat   rarely    for  years.     I  had    heard    of    his 


72  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

distress,  and  forced  myself,  against  his  will, 
into  his  chamber.  I  never  have  seen  such 
utter  destitution :  no  fire,  no  stove,  no  lamp, 
no  comforter,  no  blanket,  no  pillow,  almost 
no  furniture.  Many  remnants  of  a  sheet  had 
been  sewed  again  and  again  together,  till  it 
was  now  perhaps  three  feet  wide.  What  was 
once  an  excelsior  mattress  was  now  about  as 
hard  as  a  board.  '  You  do  not  know  what  I 
have  suffered  here,'  said  he :  'I  was  ashamed 
to  let  you  see  it.'  To  supply  all  these  needs 
was  a  pleasure.  His  gratitude  was  even  sur- 
passed by  his  unwillingness  to  be  helped.  I 
sent  five  dollars  by  a  lady  for  him  to  make 
some  drawings,  but  he  had  parted  with  all 
his  apparatus,  and  refused  the  money.  He  was 
not  a  case  for  the  Overseers  of  the  Poor  or 
any  public  relief.  Our  conference  voted  that 
he  should  have  a  pension  of  two  dollars  a 
week,  which  was  enough  for  his  food,  as  he 
has  his  rent  free. 

"  The  two  dollars  were  nominally  given  him 
for  errands  for  the  conference,  which  he  per- 
formed most  zealously.  '  I  see  through  it 
all,'  said  he :  '  you  want  me  to  think  I  am 
earning  it.     Let  me  do  all  you  can.' 

"  His  literary  brother  had  been  poorer  still, 
and,  having  no  fire,  frequented  a  public  library 


Care  of  the  Aged.  73 

where  he  could  read  and  keep  warm ;  and 
then,  for  lack  of  food  and  fire,  chewed  ginger 
to  keep  alive.  He,  too,  received  a  pension, 
kindly  raised  by  the  clerks  of  an  institution 
which  knew  him* 

"They  were  about  the  last  survivors  of  a 
family  which  had  included  a  barrister,  a 
clergyman  of  the  English  Church,  and  a  mer- 
chant. 

"  Charity  sometimes  appears  hard  when  it 
cuts  off  relief  from  those  able  to  earn  a 
good  support,  yet  who  prefer  to  beg ;  but 
surely  it  delights  to  discover  and  tenderly 
relieve  those  who  have  done  their  best,  and 
who  are  left  in  old  age  to  suffer,  unfriended 
and  alone." 

A  visitor  of  thought  and  experience,  to 
whom  the  foregoing  pages  had  been  referred, 
writes  in  reply :  "  The  foregoing  cases  were 
not  all  ideally  treated.  Some  of  them  had 
been  injured  by  doles,  and  others  by  the 
notion  that  relief  from  the  city  is  a  right. 
But  such  experiences  lead  to  certain  prin- 
ciples which  should  be  followed  in  the  care 
of  aged  people.  The  first  impulse,  when  we 
find  a  white-haired  woman  living  alone  and 
apparently  friendless,  is  to  find  some  home  in 
whose  sheltering  care  she  can  be  placed.     Bu^ 


74  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

a  home  which  is  not  full  is  hard  to  find  ;  and 
the  more  homes  are  built,  the  larger  grows 
the  crowd  of  applicants.  Once  in,  the  old 
person  often  finds  the  rules  necessary  to  so 
large  a  company  irksome,  and  wishes  herself 
back  in  her  own  lonely  room.  But,  the 
bridge  being  burned  behind  her,  she  remains 
only  half  happy  and  half  grateful  for  the 
bounty  she  has  received.  Means  must  there- 
fore be  sought  to  reduce  the  number  of  ap- 
plicants, and  to  confine  their  privileges  to 
those  who  really  need  the  kind  of  care  an 
institution  gives.  Also,  greater  consideration 
is  required  in  order  to  care  properly  for  those 
who  remain  outside." 

Mrs.  Lowell  writes  succinctly  on  this 
subject: — 

We  are  constantly  coming  on  chronic  cases,  so  to 
speak, —  old,  or  permanently  sick,  people  who  can  never 
hope  to  earn  a  living.  The  only  thing  to  be  done  for 
such  (unless  we  simply  pass  them  by,  as  perhaps  in  the 
early  stages  of  our  work  we  must)  is  to  provide  for 
them  permanent  relief  of  one  kind  or  another, —  cither 
put  them  into  a  suitable  institution,  or  secure  from  indi- 
viduals such  regular  relief  as  will  place  them  above  the 
need  of  casual  help,  and  then  see  to  it  that  they  do  not 
beg. 

The  following  suggestions  for  the  better 
care  of  the  aged  are  contributed  by  a  thought- 
ful friend  and  fellow-worker  :  — 


Care  of  the  Aged.  75 

1st.  By  patient  study  of  each  individual, 
and  by  ingenious  experiment  of  one  plan  after 
another,  some  fit  occupation  can  often  be 
found  which  shall  bring  both  happiness  and 
profit.     Peggy  O'Hara's  story  illustrates  this. 

2d.  If  unable  to  earn  enough  for  full  sup- 
port, the  relatives  should  be  sought  out,  and 
persuaded  to  bear  the  burden,  as  in  Peter 
Church's  case. 

3d.  If  both  work  and  relatives  fail,  who 
shall  care  for  this  worn-out  soul  ?  —  we  as  indi- 
viduals and  friends  (to  make  the  end  of  life 
peaceful  and  content  for  one  who  has  done 
well  his  part  in  the  world's  work),  or  we  as  a 
body  polity,  giving  the  bare  necessaries  of  life 
to  one  whose  destitute  condition  is  a  symptom 
of  disease  ?  To  answer  this  question  wisely, 
a  knowledge  of  the  past  life  is  necessary.  If 
opportunities  of  saving  have  been  thought- 
lessly passed  by,  if  intemperance  or  vice  has 
been  allowed  control,  neither  pleasant  man- 
ners nor  the  most  pathetic  pleading  should  > 
prevent  our  seeing  that  to  help  such  a  person 
encourages  improvidence,  intemperance,  and 
vice  in  others.  If  relatives  who  ought  to  aid 
will  not  do  so,  they  should  be  made  to  feel 
that,  because  of  their  negligence,  the  disgrace 
of   becoming    a    pauper   falls  upon  their  kin. 


j  6  How  to  Help  the  Poor 

Aid  must  therefore  come  from  us  as  a  body 
polity  to  protect  the  community  from  people 
infected  with  moral  disease.  Such  cases 
should  be  aided  only  in  the  almshouse.  Pri- 
vate charity  does  not  do  its  full  part  while 
any  other  than  almshouse  cases  are  allowed 
to  fall  into  the  care  of  the  city  authorities. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  savings  have  been 
swept  away  by  misfortune,  or  slowly  eaten  up 
by  long  sickness ;  if,  in  short,  no  serious  fault 
is  behind  the  poverty  that  has  fallen  like  a 
blight  upon  old  age, —  we  ought  to  be  proud 
and  glad  to  share  our  abundance  with  these 
stricken  ones;  and  those  who  have  been  em- 
ployers or  known  the  aged  people  well  in  any 
relation  of  life  ought  to  have  the  first  claim  to 
this  privilege  of  doing  good.  If  to  a  stranger 
first  comes  the  knowledge  of  the  need,  be  it 
his  grateful  duty  to  seek  out  the  old  friends. 
If  none  can  be  found,  private  benevolence 
must  see  that  the  sum  necessary  for  comfort 
is  regularly  given.  Let  not  a  week  of  plenty 
be  followed  by  weeks  of  semi-starvation,  be- 
cause we  will  not  take  the  trouble  to  make 
our  relief  regular  and  adequate. 

What  can  be  done  to  prevent  old  people 
from  becoming  dependent  upon  strangers  ? 
We  can  encourage  thrift,    and   foster    family 


Care  of  the  Aged.  77 

affection  and  the  sense  of  responsibility  in 
children  for  their  parents,  in  brothers  for 
their  sisters ;  and,  at  least  with  every  appli- 
cant for  our  charity,  and  often  in  counsel 
with  those  we  know  in  other  relations,  we 
can  use  our  forethought  to  make  sure  that 
as  many  as  possible  are  put  in  the  way  of 
providing  not  only  money,  but  friends,  for 
their  own  old  age. 

How  many  women  left  stranded  at  forty, 
who  have  bravely  made  their  way  alone, 
might  have  been  saved  the  unhappiness  and 
need  into  which  they  fall  in  extreme  age,  if 
into  the  empty  heart  some  other  lonely  ones 
had  been  taken,  and  a  new  home,  where  all 
worked  together,  could  have  been  made  ! 


VI. 

INVESTIGATION. 

The  science  of  investigation  is  only  half 
understood  by  those  who  believe  in  it,  and 
only  half  believed  in  by  the  world  in  general. 

"  I  like  his  looks  "  must  always  be  a  strong 
argument,  because  character  carves  and 
sculptures  itself  on  the  human  face  in  un- 
mistakable lines ;  but,  in  order  to  learn 
whether  the  original  value  of  a  face  has  been 
raised  or  degraded  by  the  will  behind  it, 
which  we  call  character,  is  a  knowledge  no 
one  can  get  with  surety  at  first  sight  or  with- 
out study. 

The  cry,  "  What  in  the  world  can  we  do  for 
these  people  ? "  comes  often  to  the  ear,  if  not 
to  our  own  lips.  Perhaps  we  find  a  family 
far  too  respectable  for  the  almshouse,  but 
who  seem  to  be  of  no  use,  and,  as  it  were, 
born  without  the  power  to  stand  alone.  What 
can  be  done,  indeed  ? 

It  is  a  brave  heart,  and  one   of  much  re- 


Investigation.  79 

source,  which  does  not  sometimes  fa'l  before 
the  need  of  these  helpless  creatures.  We 
wonder  why  the)'  were  born,  and  why  they  are 
here  in  the  tumult  of  city  life  to  be  run  over 
by  the  tide  of  busy  feet.  It  seems  to  be  the 
theory  of  some  saintly  souls  that  many  people 
are  created  incapable,  simply  as  a  cross  and 
ladder  for  martyrs  into  heaven ;  and,  doubt- 
less, a  few  may  remain  for  the  edification 
and  purification  of  their  stronger-shouldered 
brethren  ;  but  experience  shows  this  percent- 
age to  be  a  very  small  one, —  so  small  that,  as 
our  opportunities  for  observation  widen,  we 
come  to  believe  that  every  human  being  can 
do  something,  if  he  have  a  chance,  and  is  in- 
tended to  fill  some  gap  in  the  universal  plan. 

In  order  to  find  this  gap  and  to  understand 
what  a  man  can  do  who  has  fallen  by  the 
way  and  failed  to  find  his  proper  place,  we 
must  first  acquire  some  knowledge  of  his  per- 
sonal and  inherited  character. 

Such  knowledge  can  only  be  obtained  by 
careful  searching  and  inquiry  by  a  skilful 
person.  Volunteer  committees  may  occasion- 
ally be  able  to  do  this ;  but  we  have  only  to 
see  how  difficult  ladies  usually  find  the  busi- 
ness of  obtaining  proper  knowledge  of  the 
servants    they    engage,    to    understand    how 


80  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

unfit  volunteers  often  are  for  this  business. 
Miss  Octavia  Hill  says :  "  We  cannot  work 
wisely  without  full  knowledge  of  the  circum- 
stances of  those  to  be  dealt  with, —  hence,  the 
necessity  of  investigation.  ...  A  great  deal  of 
the  preliminary  work  is  quickly  and  well  done 
by  an  experienced  person,  which  it  would  be 
difficult  for  a  volunteer  to  do ;  neither  is  it  a 
sort  of  work  which  it  is  worth  while  for  a 
volunteer  to  undertake.  I  refer  to  verifying 
statements  as  to  residence,  earnings,  employ- 
ment, visiting  references  and  employers.  The 
finishing  touches  of  investigation,  the  little 
personal  facts,  the  desires  and  hopes,  and,  to 
a  certain  extent,  the  capacities  of  the  appli- 
cant, no  doubt  a  volunteer  visitor  could  learn 
more  thoroughly ;  but  that  can  always  be  done 
separately  from  the  preliminary  and  more 
formal  inquiry." 

The  following  little  story  will  illustrate 
better  the  uses  of  investigation  than  can  be 
done  by  any  mere  description  of  methods  :  — 

In  describing  the  benefactions  and  perplex- 
ities of  Mrs.  X.,  the  reader  will  remember 
that  a  paper  was  brought  to  her  door  by  a 
man  who  had  fallen  down  a  hatchway  some 
time  before,  and  had  been  assisted  by  the 
mayor  and  other  prominent  citizens,  who  had 


Investigation.  81 


*VS 


given  him  a  paper  to  show,  with  their  names 
appended,  and  the  amount  of  their  subscrip- 
tions set  down. 

Mrs.  X.  carried  the  name  and  address  of 
this  man  to  the  agent  of  a  district  near  his 
abode,  and  asked  to  have  the  case  examined. 
It  was  found  that  the  accident  had  occurred 
ten  years  previous  to  his  application  to  her, 
and  that  he  had  become  perfectly  able  to 
work ;  but  the  subscription  method  of  exist- 
ence had  proved  so  satisfactory  that  it  was 
continued  in  preference  to  returning  to  hard 
work. 

None  of  the  gentlemen  who  signed  the 
paper  in  behalf  of  the  supposed  disabled  man 
had  ever  looked  into  the  case.  When,  at  last, 
the  visitor  of  the  Associated  Charities  took  the 
trouble  to  do  so,  the  man  was  found  totally 
unworthy.  He  had  certainly  injured  himself 
at  one  time,  but  nobody  had  looked  up  the 
date,  and  the  mayor  who  headed  the  paper 
had  been  out  of  office  twelve  years. 

Another  history  of  a  different  character  may 
also  be  of  use  in  illustrating  the  necessity  for 
close  observation  and  scrutiny  in  order  really 
to  help  the  unfortunate  to  any  permanent  good. 

One  of  the  appeals  to  Mrs.  X.,  you  remem- 
ber, was  from  a  woman  in  Lowell  who  wished 


82  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

to  have  the  interest  paid  on  a  mortgage.  It 
was  discovered,  after  a  while,  by  a  friend  to 
whom  she  applied  and  who  took  the  trouble 
to  look  into  the  subject,  that  the  house  was 
worth  something  above  the  mortgage,  and  it 
would  be  wiser  to  sell.  One  thousand  dollars 
was  the  result  of  the  sale,  which  money  was 
invested  in  a  small,  comfortable  dwelling  suf- 
ficient for  the  woman  and  her  children  and 
one  boarder.  They  had  no  debts,  the  boarder 
helped  to  pay  running  expenses,  and  the  two 
eldest  children  began  to  earn  something.  By 
this  timely  care  given  to  their  business,  the 
woman  was  not  only  rescued  from  the  position 
of  a  beggar,  and  several  hundred  dollars  thus 
saved  every  year,  which  she  had  begged  for 
ten  years  regularly  to  pay  the  mortgage,  but 
she  was  delivered  from  anxiety,  and  her  chil- 
dren felt  an  honest  pride  in  keeping  an  inde- 
pendent roof  over  their  heads. 

In  one  of  the  first  papers  published  in 
America  upon  a  better  way  of  helping  the 
poor,  wherein  the  methods  so  generally 
adopted  since  are  admirably  described  by 
Mrs.  Ames,  she  says :  "  Wherein  does  our 
method  differ  from  others  whose  machinery  is 
much  after  the  same  pattern  ?  Chiefly  in  the 
spirit    of    its    administration.  ...  It    not    only 


Investigation.  83 

requires  that  every  case  shall  be  carefully 
investigated, —  it  makes  that  investigation  the 
main  feature  in  the  proceedings  ;  it  creates  for 
the  community  something  equivalent  to  a  court 
or  tribunal,  whichgputs  each  case  on  trial,  looks 
up  the  evidence,  and  seeks  to  guide  its  de- 
cision by  some  intelligent  principle  of  reason 
which  has  the  moral  force  of  law.  It  assumes 
that  a  request  for  help  is  not  in  itself  a  ground 
for  bestowing  it,  any  more  than  a  complaint 
lodged  in  a  Court  of  Common  Pleas  is  ground 
for  giving  a  verdict  to  the  plaintiff.  ...  It  is 
made  certain  that  the  amount  of  helpless  de- 
pendence can  constantly  be  lessened  by  the 
careful  painstaking  and  judicial  administration 
of  local  charity." 

The  result  of  failure  to  investigate  is  seen 
every  day.  The  impossibility  of  finding  good 
positions  for  persons  who  are  not  known,  and 
the  mistakes  in  placing  those  who  are  only 
half  understood,  sometimes  makes  us  feel  that 
knowledge  of  character  underlies  all  success, 
and  failure  to  obtain  such  knowledge  is  the 
best  reason  for  want  of  success. 

In  order  to  give  some  idea  of  the  far-reach- 
ing nature  of  true  investigation,  the  following 
history  will  be  of  interest :  — 

One  day,  a  lad  about  fifteen  years  old  called 


84  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

at  a  gentleman's  office  down  town,  asking  for 
help  to  start  in  the  business  of  selling  news- 
papers. He  was  originally  from  England,  but 
was  just  then  recovering  from  a  hurt  in  the 
heel  received  while  running  an  elevator  in 
Chicago.  The  gentleman,  who  was  a  believer 
in  the  endeavors  and  a  visitor  of  the  Asso- 
ciated Charities,  asked  one  of  the  agents  to 
investigate  and  report  to  him,  when  he  would 
gladly  give  some  assistance  if  it  were  thought 
wise.  Letters  were  sent  accordingly  to  Eng- 
land through  the  Charity  Organization  Society, 
as  well  as  to  Chicago  and  Philadelphia,  the 
addresses  in  the  latter  cities  being  furnished 
by  the  lad  himself.  Meantime,  another  kind 
of  employment  was  offered  him,  which  he 
accepted ;  but  he  failed  to  appear  at  the  ap- 
pointed time.  Also,  the  address  in  Philadel- 
phia was  a  false  one;  but  the  record  from 
Chicago  was  good,  although  it  covered  only 
the  one  month  preceding  his  accident.  From 
the  London  Charity  Organization  Society,  we 
learned  that  the  lad's  story  was  altogether 
untrue.  He  has  a  mania  for  running  away 
and  leading  a  vagrant  life.  In  vain  have  his 
parents  advertised  for  him.  They  are  far  from 
being  dead,  as  he  says,  on  the  contrary,  they 
wish  to  send  money  for  his  return  to  them. 


Investigation.  85 

They  are  respectable  working-people,  and  full 
of  grief  because  of  their  prodigal  son. 

While  we  were  waiting  for  these  letters,  the 
lad  disappeared.  He  was  heard  of  once,  with 
his  leg  bound  up,  begging  at  a  lady's  door, 
who  gave  him  money.  The  police  were  no- 
tified as  soon  as  we  received  the  information ; 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  knowledge  of 
his  case  will  spread  abroad  widely  enough  to 
cause  him  to  be  brought  into  a  better  way  of 
life. 

The  plan  of  action  agreed  upon  by  the  con- 
ference, into  whose  care  the  case  fell,  was  as 
follows :  The  police  were  requested  to  arrest 
the  boy  as  a  vagrant,  and  hold  him  while  the 
information  should  be  sent  to  the  office  of 
that  conference.  An  effort  will  then  be  made 
to  have  him  placed,  by  the  judge  of  the  court, 
"on  probation,"  until  fitting  employment  may 
be  found  for  him,  either  on  a  training  ship,  or 
by  sending  him  to  sea.  His  vagrant  propen- 
sities seem  to  preclude  the  possibility  of  any 
success  either  in  sending  him  home,  which 
has  already  been  tried,  or  finding  employment 
for  him  on  land.  This  case  is  at  present  un- 
finished, certainly  ;  but  the  first  step  has  been 
taken,  by  means  of  information  obtained  from 
his  parents  through  the  Charity  Organization 


86  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

Society  of  London,  for  rescuing  the  lad  from 
a  life  of  continued  deceit  and  crime.  "  The 
crime  of  begging,"  as  Edward  Denison  says, 
"does  not  consist  in  the  mere  solicitation  of 
alms.  The  gist  of  the  offence  is  the  intention 
of  preying  upon  society ;  and  of  this  intent 
the  asking  alms  is  only  evidence, —  not  proof." 
In  a  valuable  paper  lately  printed  by  Mrs. 
Lowell  on  the  subject  of  "  Duties  of  Friendly 
Visitors,"  she  remarks  :  — 

One  very  important  point  for  a  visitor  to  aim  at  is 
to  find  out  all  about  the  man  of  the  family,  where  there 
is  one.  Charities  and  charitable  people  are  too  prone 
to  deal  exclusively  with  the  woman,  accepting  her  state- 
ment that  the  man  is  looking  for  work.  Now,  perhaps 
he  is,  and  perhaps  he  is  not ;  but  the  facts  should  be 
fully  established, —  ist,  that  he  has  no  work;  2d,  that 
he  would  be  glad  to  get  it.  The  man  and  the  woman 
should  be  seen  and  advised  with  together  in  regard  to 
their  present  condition  and  future  plans.  Where  there 
is  a  real  desire  to  help  themselves,  the  man  will  be 
ready  to  accept  his  proper  place  as  head  of  the  family, 
responsible  for  its  support ;  and,  where  he  keeps  out  of 
the  way  and  lets  his  wife  do  the  running  and  the  beg- 
ging, the  visitor  may  well  suspect  that  all  is  not  as  it 
should  be. 

This  is  excellent,   but  now  and  then  we  find 
the  trouble  lies  in  the  other  direction. 

Within  the  past  six  months,  two  cases  have 
come  before  one  committee  where  the   incom- 


Investigation.  87 

petence  and  inertness  of  the  women  have 
chiefly  caused  the  degradation  and  shipwreck 
of  their  large  families. 

The  first  is  the  case  of  a  woman,  her 
brother,  and  five  children,  who  never  asked 
any  help,  but  who  were  found  by  a  friendly 
visitor  one  day  this  spring  while  searching  for 
another  family.  This  company  of  seven  per- 
sons had  been  almost  entirely  supported  for 
many  months  by  the  labor  of  the  two  eldest 
children,  fourteen  and  sixteen  years  old. 
Their  clothes  were  worn  out.  The  tenement 
where  they  lived  was  dark  and  dirty,  and 
despair  seemed  to  be  settling  down  upon  the 
place.  It  was  discovered  that  the  father  had 
gone  to  the  far  West  two  or  three  years  ago, 
and  made  a  home  there.  He  earned  the  first 
year  about  two  hundred  dollars,  which  he  sent 
to  his  wife,  asking  her  to  come  to  him  and 
bring  the  children.  Her  mother  was  then 
living,  who  did  not  wish  to  go ;  therefore  they 
spent  the  money,  and  lingered  until  in  a  few 
months  the  old  woman  died.  He  could  not 
send  any  more  money  on  account  of  plans 
he  had  made  to  prepare  a  comfortable  home 
for  their  reception.  A  letter  was  sent  west- 
ward immediately  to  corroborate  the  story. 
It  was  not  only    found  to  be    true,  but  kind 


88  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

neighbors  offered  to  send  fifty  dollars  in 
order  to  bring  out  the  two  eldest  children. 
Although  this  was  clearly  impossible,  these 
children  being  the  chief  bread-winners  for  the 
family,  an  offer  was  made  to  raise  the  rest  of 
the  sum  here,  if  the  whole  party  could  be  re- 
ceived with  reasonable  hope  of  employment. 
After  a  brief  delay,  a  good  woman  came  from 
the  West  with  the  fifty  dollars  in  her  hand; 
the  remainder  was  raised  in  Boston ;  and  the 
party  soon  left  with  lunch-baskets  and  decent 
clothes,  full  of  hope  for  this  new  life  in  the 
West.  But  the  mother  has  been  difficult  to 
manage  ;  and,  except  for  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  children,  would  have  preferred  to  waste 
and  languish  in  the  poverty  and  filth  of  her 
miserable  abode.  Except  for  her  fear  and 
incompetence,  the  whole  family  might  have 
gone  with  the  two  hundred  dollars  sent  so 
long  ago,  and  her  poor  children  would  have 
been  spared  much  suffering  and  degradation. 
Very  like  this  is  the  history  of  another 
family  with  a  mother  who  was  suddenly  left  a 
widow  with  nine  children.  They  were  becom- 
ing utterly  dependent  in  the  city ;  but  a  place 
was  found  for  them  in  a  factory  town,  where 
they  had  a  clean,  airy  tenement  (a  beautiful 
contrast   to  their  wretched  abode  in  Boston), 


Investigation.  89 

and,  what  was,  for  them,  a  large  income.  But 
the  mother's  total  incapacity  either  to  cook  a 
dinner  or  to  buy  it  properly,  or,  what  was  far 
more  important,  to  train  her  children,  led 
them  into  debt.  Suddenly,  we  heard,  to  our 
despair,  that  they  had  returned  to  Boston. 
Their  going  had  given  cause  to  hope  for 
a  good  future  for  the  children,  and  their 
benevolent  friends  rejoiced  in  giving  them 
everything  for  their  comfort  which  could  be 
thought  of.  Therefore,  to  find  them  once 
more  crowded  into  a  wretched  hole  at  the 
North  End  and  asking  alms  was  indeed  a 
disappointment. 

A  council  was  held  upon  the  case ;  and  it 
was  decided  that  the  only  hope  was  in  a 
factory  town,  and  that  we  must  send  them  off 
again  elsewhere.  But  how  to  do  it?  They 
could  not  absolutely  be  compelled  :  therefore, 
what  measures  could  be  adopted  ?  We  found 
there  were  two  reasons  for  their  wishing  to  re- 
main in  the  city  :  first,  the  eldest  girl,  who  was 
getting  beyond  all  restraint,  wished  to  be  in 
town ;  second,  the  mother  thought  she  could 
get  relief  from  public  and  private  sources.. 
These,  then,  were  the  two  points  of  attack; 
and  it  was  thought  well  to  try  both  at  once. 
A  wise,  sweet  woman,  who  has  a  gift  for  in- 


90  H(nv  to  Help  the  root: 

fluencing  young  girls,  was  persuaded  to  tiy 
the  first.  At  the  same  moment,  all  the  relief 
societies  were  asked  to  withhold  assistance, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  family  really  was 
hungry.  The  generous  visitor  who  had  in 
previous  years  exhausted  her  substance  upon 
this  family  was  told  that  it  was  not  necessary 
to  visit  them  again  just  then,  because  we 
hoped  to  get  them  off  shortly,  and  we  would 
gladly  call  upon  her  for  assistance,  if  any  were 
required,  but  it  seemed  better  that  none  should 
be  given  just  then.  , 

The  result  was  unexpectedly  successful. 
The  kind  friend  who  had  taken  the  girl  in 
hand  was  surprised  at  finding  her  at  last 
amenable  to  her  advice ;  and,  in  a  week  or 
two,  the  family  was  once  more  on  the  road, — 
this  time  outside  the  State  lines, —  and  we 
hear  that  they  are  doing  well.  They  pleaded 
for  clothes  and  comforts  for  this  their  second 
journey ;  but  we  were  afraid  to  trust  them,  and 
they  went  in  their  old  clothes.  The  result  is 
better  than  we  feared.  Every  day  they  seem 
to  be  improving.  The  clergyman  of  the  town, 
who  was  written  to  by  the  girl's  friend,  goes 
to  see  them,  and  is  satisfied  with  their  con- 
dition. 

These  stories,  drawn  from  late  experience, 


Investigation. 


•<sc 


illustrate  what  I  have  hinted  at  before, —  that 
volunteer  service  is  what  we  live  by.  We 
cannot,  of  course,  get  on  in  this  work  of  in- 
vestigation without  some  person  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  be  'found  regularly  at  certain 
hours,  and  upon  whom  we  may  all  depend, 
because  volunteer  service  must  be  interrupted 
service ;  but  oftentimes,  in  making  inquiries, 
the  appeals  of  some  one  who  is  not  known  to 
have  any  business  connection  with  any  organ- 
ization are  of  very  great  value,  and  will  have 
far  more  influence  than  agents'  letters. 

How  shall  we  increase  this  valuable  volun- 
teer service  ?  "  We  are  all  members  of  one 
body  working  together,"  and  a  devoted  agent 
said  only  a  short  time  ago  :  "  Pray  make  the 
visitors  understand  that,  do  the  best  I  can, 
I  may  easily  be  mistaken  ;  and  I  feel  myself 
very  dependent  upon  their  impressions." 


VII. 

INTEMPERANCE. 

"Tender  pity  for  the  poor  has  been  a  grow- 
ing characteristic  of  this  age.  A  better  sign 
of  it  still  is  the  increased  sense  of  duty  to 
them,  not  only  as  poor  men,  but  as  men. 
There  needs,  however,  it  appears  to  me,  some- 
thing still,  before  our  charity  shall  be  effectual 
for  good.  The  feeling  is  there,  the  conscience 
is  there  ;  but  there  is  wanting  the  wise  thought 
and  the  resolute  because  educated  will." 

We  have  seen  a  degraded  population  in- 
crease year  by  year  in  our  American  cities. 
We  have  seen  drunkenness  decrease  among 
our  well-to-do  people,  and  fall  into  a  contempt 
unknown  in  the  past  century ;  but  among  the 
unprotected  classes  it  has  greatly  increased, 
together  with  illiteracy  and  other  evils,  and 
yet  we  have  continued  to  give  broken  food 
and  "  charity  sewing  "  to  our  poor,  and  have 
felt  that  we  have  done  what  we  could.  In 
short,  we  have  received  the  children  of  pau- 


Intemperance.  93 

perized  Europe  into  our  open  arms,  and  have 
wondered  at  first,  then  felt  ourselves  repelled, 
by  the  sad  issue  of  our  careless  hospitality. 
Drunkenness  is  the  root  of  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  the  suffering  of  the  poor  in  the 
cities  of  America.  Therefore,  this  is  the  chief 
problem  with  which  the  volunteer  visitor  as 
well  as  the  political  economist  must  deal.  It 
is  of  no  use  to  say,  "  I  will  have  nothing  to  do 
with  'drunken  cases,'"  because  here  lies  the 
ground  of  misery  and  of  our  labor.  If 
"  drunken  cases  "  are  to  be  excepted  in  any 
district,  there  can  be  no  work  of  any  moment 
done  for  the  poor  of  that  locality. 

On  the  contrary,  the  visitor's  motto  should 
be,  "  Never  give  a  family  up."  If  the  father 
drinks  irrevocably,  and  will  not  support  his 
family,  he  should  be  sentenced  upon  the  vis- 
itor's testimony,  and  sent  to  some  institution 
where  he  will  be  obliged  to  work.  His  wife 
may  then  be  better  able  to  do  something  for 
the  support  of  the  family.  If  the  children  are 
grown,  they  can  assist  her.  If  they  are  very 
young,  they  can  be  put  into  day-nurseries  and 
kindergartens  while  she  is  at  work,  and  return 
to  her  at  night. 

If  the  mother  drinks,  and  cannot  be  influ- 
enced to  reform,  it  will  be  far  better  for  the 


94  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

children  that  she  should  be  sent  to  the  Re- 
formatory at  Sherburne  (if  she  live  in  Bos- 
ton), the  visitor  being  willing  to  bear  witness 
to  what  is  known  to  be  for  the  ultimate  good 
of  the  family.  If  the  father  is  dead  or  incapa- 
ble of  caring  for  his  children,  they  may  then 
be  taken  into  "guardianship  and  custody"  of 
the  visitor  or  some  other  friend,  and  afterward 
placed  out.  Nevertheless,  visitors  continue  to 
ask  in  these  puzzling  cases  :  "  What  can  we 
do  ?  Suppose  the  mother  is  respectable  and 
intelligent,  far  above  the  average :  can  we  let 
her  and  the  six  children  suffer?  " 

Certainly,  these  sorrowful  cases  make  us 
pause.  There  is  great  danger  in  yielding.  If 
we  clothe  the  children  and  give  them  food 
one  day,  the  father  will  feel  the  situation  less 
than  before ;  and,  unless  we  think  best  to  sup- 
port the  family  entirely,  they  will  only  sink 
lower  as  soon  as  our  attention  is  engaged 
elsewhere.  Something  can  be  done,  however; 
and  much  depends  upon  the  visitor.  The 
statutes  of  Massachusetts  make  it  incumbent 
that  a  man  should  support  his  family.  There- 
fore, we  may  call  the  arm  of  the  law  to  assist 
us.  A  complaint  to  the  police  will  sometimes 
do  good,  even  if  we  go  no  farther;  and,  if  we 
combine  with   such  measures  all    the  healthy 


Intemperance.  95 

and  kindly  influences  we  know,  the  whole  cur- 
rent of  affairs  in  that  household  may  be  grad- 
ually changed  for  the  better. 

We  cannot  afford  either  to  fear  or  despise 
any  labor  in  behalf  of  temperance.  The  evil 
runs  too  deep. 

It  is  one  of  the  visitor's  duties  to  strive  to 
enforce  the  laws  of  Massachusetts  upon  this 
question.  The  judge  of  the  district  may  be 
asked  to  listen  to  the  case  and  advise ;  the 
police  of  the  district  will  assist,  if  requested, 
by  keeping  watch  and  threatening  arrest ;  the 
truant  officers  will  look  in  and  see  that  the 
children  are  kept  at  school ;  and  the  visitor 
may  meanwhile,  by  friendly  oversight,  interest 
the  man  in  some  club  or  friendly  evening 
resort,  where  he  will  be  withdrawn  more  or 
less  from  temptation.  If  he  is  too  far  gone 
and  a  slave  to  drink  and,  humanly  speaking, 
incapable  of  reform,  he  must  then  be  com- 
mitted on  long  sentence  to  some  institution. 
Such  cases  cannot  be  settled  in  a  day  nor  in 
a  year  ;  but  they  are,  perhaps,  the  most  impor- 
tant branch  of  our  labor :  certainly,  they  are 
the  most  puzzling  and  difficult  part  of  it. 

"  How  many  women,"  I  asked  a  friend  who 
conducted  me  lately  over  the  Reformatory  for 
women    at    Sherburne,    "  were    sent   here   for 


g6  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

drunkenness  ?  "  "  Directly  or  indirectly,  it  has 
been  the  cause  of  nearly  all  the  commit- 
ments," was  the  reply.  "  There  are  very  few 
exceptions."  It  has  been  estimated  that  nine- 
tenths  of  the  city  poor  who  ask  public  relief 
have  fallen  into  pauperism  from  the  same 
cause.  Let  us  accept  our  burden  of  work, 
therefore,  with  our  eyes  open  and  with  hands 
willing  to  struggle  with  this  evil. 

It  is  not  encouraging  work  in  the  present 
condition  of  our  license  law ;  but,  even  when 
all  is  done  that  law  can  do,  there  will  still  be 
no  restraining  force  to  compare  with  that  of 
public  opinion  and  a  recognition  of  the  divine 
law  planted  in  the  heart  of  men.  Much  re- 
mains to  be  clone  by  visitors  among  the  poor 
(who  are  beginning  to  create  public  opinion), 
by  the  knowledge  they  obtain  daily.  Mr. 
James  H.  Dormer,  of  Buffalo,  writes  :  "  Bishop 
Ireland,  one  of  the  most  earnest,  practical, 
and  beautiful  characters  that  ever  formally 
identified  himself  with  the  temperance  cause, 
has  said :  — 

What  is  at  once  practicable  and  would  be  most  ser- 
viceable in  diminishing  the  evils  of  intemperance  is  to 
demand  of  liquor-sellers  high  license  fees.  There  are 
two  grounds  upon  which  we  base  our  plea  for  high 
license.     One  is  the  economic  ground.     If  a  traffic  of 


Intemperance.  97 

any  kind  puts  unusual  impediments  in  the  wheels  of 
government,  State  or  municipal,  and  increases  to  an 
inordinate  degree  its  expenses,  the  traffic  should  be 
made  to  bear  its  due  proportion  of  those  expenses. 
Before  saloon-keepers  have  reason  to  complain  of  injus- 
tice or  harsh  treatment,  they  should  be  made  to  pay 
over  three-fourths  of  all  sums  spent  annually  in  main- 
taining police  forces,  criminal  courts,  jails,  and  public 
charities.  In  allowing  them  to  pay  but  trifles  of  those 
sums,  the  State  or  city  is  guilty  of  deep  injustice  toward 
the  sober  citizen,  who  is  taxed  to  repair  the  harm  in- 
flicted by  liquor  upon  society.  The  second  ground  for 
high  license  is  the  moral  consideration  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  the  government  to  prevent  as  well  as  to  punish 
wrong-doing,  when  no  principle  is  violated  by  such  pre- 
vention, and  to  put  restrictions  upon  a  traffic  which  is 
dangerous  to  public  morals.  Saloons  are  numerous 
beyond  all  justification,  and  in  most  cases  are  in  the 
hands  of  reckless  individuals.  High  license  will  reduce 
the  number.  Not  many  who  would  be  candidates  for  a 
bar  could  pay  $1,000  or  $500  ;  nor  would  the  wholesale 
dealer  be  anxious,  as  he  is  now,  to  advance  the  license 
fee.  High  license  would  drive  saloons  from  the  out- 
lying districts  into  the  more  central  portions  of  the  city, 
where  police  control  is  more  effective.  It  would  end 
the  unholy  alliance  between  groceries  and  liquor,  and 
the  poor  laborer  or  his  wife  could  buy  a  pound  of  tea 
or  sugar  without  being  invited  to  buy  also  a  glass  of 
whiskey  or  beer.  The  impecunious  fellows,  ashamed 
to  beg  and  too  idle  to  work,  willing,  however,  to  sell 
key,  are  often  the  men  most  careless  of  conse- 
quences:  their  idea  is  to  make  money.  They  would  be 
kept  out  of  the  business.  A  salutary  fear  would  rest 
upon    all    liquor-dealers    of    violating    city    ordinances, 


98  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

lest  they  lose  their  license,  which  has  some  value  when 
it  costs  $500  or  $1,000.  Nor  would  so  many  drink,  if 
we  had  high  license.  There  are  men  who  will  seek  out 
whiskey  or  beer  wherever  it  is,  and  pay  any  money  for 
it.  There  are  many  others,  however,  who  will  not 
drink,  when  temptation  is  not  thrust  upon  them.  The 
poor  workingman,  after  his  day's  work,  will  not  walk 
several  blocks  to  find  a  saloon.  If  it  is  next  door,  and 
the  selfish  keeper,  envying  the  dollar  he  has  earned  so 
hard,  invites  him  with  a  sickly  smile  and  a  shake  of  his 
clammy  hand  to  cross  its  threshold,  the  poor  man  will 
yield  and  get  drunk.  Diminish  the  saloons,  and  you 
diminish  the  number  of  drinkers.  A  low  license  fee  is 
an  open  encouragement  to  the  indefinite  and  irrespon- 
sible multiplication  of  rum-holes  in  every  street  and  in 
every  block  of  our  cities. 

Canon  Farrar,  in  speaking  of  the  effect  of 
drunkenness  upon  the  lives  of  children,  enu- 
merates nine  results,  one  only  more  terrible 
than  the  last.  The  passage  reads  briefly  as 
follows  ::  — 

"  1  st.  They  are  exposed  to  shameful  neg- 
lect. .  .  . 

"  2d.  To  horrible  accidents.  .  .  . 

"3d.  To  cruelty.  .  .  .  A  week  ago,  a  drunken 
woman  is  seen  holding  a  child  of  five  months 
by  the  legs.  When  remonstrated  with,  she 
flings  the  child  on  the  pavement,  and  runs 
away. 

"  4th.  Not  only  to  cruelty,  but  to  death.     A 


Intemperance.  99 

fortnight  ago,  a  child  is  found  burned  and 
scalded  to  death,  because  the  drunken  woman 
in  charge  of  it  falls  against  a  fireplace.  .  .  . 

"  5th.  They  are  exposed  to  dreadful  congeni- 
tal sickness.  The  author  of  John  Halifax 
writes,  after  a  visit  to  the  East  London  Hospital 
for  Children  :  '  The  nurse  said,  "  These  are  our 
worst  and  most  painful  cases."  One  felt  in 
going  through  this  ward  that  death  was  better 
than  life.' 

"6th.  They  are  exposed  also  to  murder.  .  .  . 

"7th.  And  to  unconscious  suicide.  In  the  joy 
of  men  this  last  Christmas,  a  child  of  three 
gets  out  of  bed,  drinks  some  whiskey  left  on 
the  table,  and  in  the  morning  is  found  dead. 

"8th.  They  are  exposed  to  something  still 
worse, —  that  is,  sin.  .  .  .  How  often  are  the 
children  of  the  drunkard  trained  in  sin !  .  .  . 

"9th.  Lastly,  how  fearful  is  the  lot  of  the 
drunkard's  children  from  the  fearful  taint  in 
the  blood,  the  awful  hereditary  craving/"  .  .  . 

"With  regard  to  the  connection  between 
intemperance  and  lunacy,"  writes  Mr.  Francis 
Peek,  "  the  most  eminent  doctors  connected 
with  lunatic  asylums  put  down  at  least  twenty 
per  cent,  of  the  cases  treated  by  them  to 
intemperance."  .  .  . 

Mr.  Peek  continues  :  "  If  there  be  one  duty 


ioo  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

which  is  universally  acknowledged  as  more 
incumbent  than  another  on  the  governing 
power  in  a  State,  it  is  the  duty  of  providing 
protection  for  the  citizens.  ...  In  what  way, 
then,  can  State  action  be  taken  with  the  best 
chance  of  success  ?  ...  It  is  fairly  proved  that 
undue  facilities  for  obtaining  strong  drink, 
involving  those  numberless  inducements  which 
competition  compels  dealers  to  offer  in  the 
shape  of  amusements,  etc.,  are  the  greatest 
cause  of  national  intemperance ;  that,  where 
there  are  no  drinking  places,  there  is  scarcely 
any  intemperance  at  all ;  that,  where  there  are 
few,  there  is  very  little  ;  and  that,  where  these 
facilities  have  been  reduced,  a  corresponding 
decrease  in  intemperance  has  taken  place. 
It  is  in  evidence  that  where  a  public  house 
has  been  introduced  into  a  hitherto  sober 
community,  where  none  had  before  existed, 
drunkenness  has  followed.  It  is  to  the  dimi- 
nution of  drinking  facilities,  and  the  discour- 
agement of  liquors  of  high  alcoholic  strength, 
that  we  must  chiefly  look  for  any  improve- 
ment in  this  matter.  .  .  . 

"  Every  inducement  is  required  for  redoubled 
efforts  to  enlighten  public  opinion.  .  .  .  Every 
Band  of  Hope  formed  is  a  gain.  .  .  .  The  battle 
must  be  won  by  degrees,  by  steady  persistence 


Intemperance.  i  o  i 

and  patient  endeavor,  by  bringing  public  opin- 
ion to  approve  each  step  attained."  .  .  . 

I  promised  in  the  earlier  pages  of  this  little 
book  to  refer  again  to  the  effect  produced  by 
Mrs.  X.'s  gift  t<?  a  well-known  relief  society. 
Application  had  been  made  at  the  office  of 
that  society  by  Mary  Conolly,  a  good-looking 
Irishwoman,  for  shoes  and  coal.  She  had 
three  little  children,  and  her  husband  had 
been  out  of  work  several  weeks.  The  busv 
visitor,  who  not  infrequently  makes  twenty 
visits  a  day,  looked  in  upon  the  family  at  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  He  found  the  mother 
sleepy  and  uncombed,  the  room  cold,  the  three 
children  guiltless  of  face-washing,  the  room 
rather  cleaner  than  the  worst,  however,  but 
the  man  still  asleep  in  bed  in  an  adjoining 
room.  "  Poor  man  !  "  Mary  said.  "  He  was 
looking  for  work  all  day,  it  being  very  scarce 
now;  and  he  had  taken  cold,  which  made  his 
legs  stiff.''  The  eldest  boy  had  just  come  in 
with  a  basket  of  cinders  and  some  chips  to 
make  a  fire.  They  were  in  debt  for  rent,  they 
all  needed  shoes,  and  "  Whatever  we  shall  do 
if  Mike  don't  find  work  soon  I  don't  know. 
I  ain't  used  to  livin'  so."  And  indeed  it 
seemed  as  if  she  were  not.  So  the  visitor 
withdrew,  marked  it  a  worthy  case,  sent  five 


io2  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

dollars'  worth  of  coal  and  shoes,  and  heard 
nothing  more  of  the  family  until  the  next  sea- 
son, when  the  woman  returned,  representing 
still  greater  need,  because  there  was  another 
baby  and  work  had  been  more  scarce  than 
ever. 

It  is  hardly  reasonable  to  expect  a  woman 
with  three  young  children  and  a  healthy  hus- 
band to  go  to  work,  in  order  to  get  money  for 
their  support.  Indeed,  it  is  far  from  desirable. 
The  best  the  visitor  can  do  is  to  leave  word 
for  the  man  to  come  to  see  him,  making  an 
early  appointment.  Even  in  the  hardest  sea- 
sons, it  is  possible  to  get  more  or  less  work  for 
men  who  are  willing.  Meanwhile,  hard  as  it 
may  seem,  "  relief  "  must  absolutely  be  with- 
held as  a  general  rule.  If  the  man  finds  that 
the  truant  officer  will  get  shoes  for  his  chil- 
dren and  societies  will  send  him  coal  and  he 
can  get  broken  food  at  ten  cents  a  day  from 
hotels,  which  is  sufficient  to  nourish  his  fam- 
ily, he  will  not  make  the  same  exertion  to  get 
and  keep  employment,  and  saving  will  be 
altogether  out  of  his  calculation  ;  but,  if  his 
children  are  kept  in  the  public  schools  less 
well  clothed  than  other  children,  if  he  finds 
the  room  cold  and  the  table  bare  when  he 
goes  home,  his  pride  and  comfort  will  both  be 


Intemperance.  1 03 

at  stake,  and,  if  the  man  be  not  sunk  too  low, 
these  motives  will  be  found  strong  levers  for 
his  regeneration. 

Either  something  can  be  done  to  bring  a 
man  to  his  senses  and  give  him  a  chance  once 
more  to  face  the  world  as  an  honest  man 
should,  or,  if  all  available  means  fail  to  re- 
store him,  he  must  be  put  away  where  he  will 
no  longer  continue  to  contaminate  society. 
Something  is  to  be  done  in  either  case. 

The  man  can  be  put  to  work,  and  by  kind- 
ness, personal  influence,  opportunity,  reform 
clubs,  combined  with  watchfulness  of  the 
police  and  truant  officers,  can  be  kept  in 
order,  or  he  cannot ;  and,  in  the  latter  case,  he 
should  not  be  suffered  to  lie  in  his  bed  by 
day  and  contaminate  the  community  by  night, 
but  he  should  be  brought  under  the  penalty  of 
the  laws  of  the  Commonwealth.  This  last  work 
is  usually  considered  as  outside  of  the  pale  of 
charity  work,  but  it  is  as  much  a  part  of  it 
and  as  great  a  necessity  as  any  other  part. 
It  cannot  be  left  to  the  police  altogether  to  do 
this.  The  visitor  is  often  needed  to  make  the 
complaint  or  to  appear  as  witness.  Who 
should  know  better  than  such  a  friend  the 
suffering  caused  to  a  little  family  by  the 
father's   sins  and  self-indulgence  ?     Who    can 


104  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

be  so  well  qualified  to  speak  in  their  behalf  ? 
I  have  in  mind  such  a  family  at  this  mo- 
ment, where  the  priest  performed  this  benevo- 
lent office  with  the  assistance  of  the  truant 
officer.  The  father  and  mother  both  drank, 
and  the  children  were  neglected.  Both  par- 
ents were  shut  up  in  separate  institutions  and 
the  children  taken  away  from  them ;  but,  after 
two  months,  they  were  suffered  to  have  home 
and  children  again.  The  result  has  been  sat- 
isfactory. The  man  is  at  work  all  clay,  the 
woman  at  home,  their  debts  are  paid,  their 
rooms  are  decent ;  and  the  wholesome  fear 
which  hangs  over  them  in  case  of  failure, 
combined  with  the  unceasing  kindness  and 
attention  of  the  priest,  have  thus  far  kept  them 
from  falling. 

It  would  be  far  from  impossible  to  give 
many  touching  and  interesting  stories  in  this 
place  of  what  has  been  effected  by  the  per- 
sonal influence  of  good  men  and  women  over 
those  who  are  weak  and  subject  to  temptation; 
but  the  private  nature  of  such  work,  as  well  as 
lack  of  space,  must  prevent.  I  know  a  certain 
Captain  of  our  Police  who  has  saved  at  least 
one  man,  not  by  the  force  of  the  law,  but  by 
exercising  his  private  influence  alone.  The 
man    in   question    had    brought  his  family  to 


Intemperance.  105 

starvation,  and  he  was  in  a  condition  to  be 
arrested ;  but  he  is  now  a  respected  and  self- 
respecting  carpenter,  his  family  restored  to 
their  comfortable  home. 

A  lady  who  had  striven  patiently,  but,  as  it 
seemed,  unsuccessfully,  with  many  cases  of 
intemperance,  lost  no  courage,  but  helped  a 
man  who  still  continued  to  drink  at  intervals, 
until  she  feared  she  might  be  doing  harm 
rather  than  good  by  her  renewed  forgiveness 
of  his  broken  promises.  The  period  arrived 
when  she  saw  that  further  help  should  be 
withdrawn ;  and  before  a  solemn  company 
gathered  "in  an  upper  chamber"  prayers  were 
offered  for  his  future,  and  he  was  told  that,  in 
justice  to  others,  nothing  further  could  be 
done  for  him.  He  was  a  man  above  the  lower 
classes  of  the  poor ;  but  he  had  sold  his 
clothes,  and  had  crept  in  to  the  back  of  the 
room  in  the  wretched  overalls  provided  in  lieu 
of  clothes  by  the  refuge  where  he  had  found 
shelter.  When  all  was  silent,  he  asked  to  be 
heard ;  and,  kneeling  there,  he  thanked  God 
for  these  friends  who  had  been  so  patient 
with  him.  His  own  family  had  long  felt  they 
could  have  no  influence  over  him.  Then, 
he  besought  our  Father  in  heaven  to  give 
him  strength  to  resist    temptation.      He  had 


io6  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

tried  again  and  again.  Would  not  the  Infinite 
God  help  to  save  him,  when  all  earthly  hope 
seemed  withdrawn  ?  Perfect  silence  and  the 
raining  down  of  tears  followed  his  sorrowful 
figure  as  he  withdrew,  and  the  patient  woman 
who  continued  to  be  his  friend  determined 
still  to  endeavor  to  sustain  him  in  his  new  re- 
solve. He  was  no  longer  young,  the  habit 
was  an  old  one ;  but  from  that  moment,  which 
is  now  three  years  ago,  he  has  been  perfectly 
sober,  is  restored  to  his  position  and  his  fam- 
ily, and  this  dark  valley  is  to  the  world  as  if 
it  had  never  been. 


VIII. 

VISITORS   AND   VISITED. 

"  You  probably  all  know,"  writes  Miss 
Octavia  Hill,  "  that  dirt  disappears  gradually 
in  places  that  cleanly  people  go  in  and  out  of 
frequently." 

One  of  the  first  duties  of  a  visitor  is  to  use 
the  senses  in  entering  a  tenement  house.  The 
laws  of  the  city  of  Boston  are  very  clear  about 
the  care  which  must  be  taken  in  order  to  pre- 
serve the  public  health  and  public  decency, 
and  the  officers  of  the  Board  of  Health  are 
courteous  and  attentive  in  listening  to  and  fol- 
lowing up  suggestions.  We  wish  all  persons 
assuming  the  responsibility  of  visitors  would 
recognize  that  it  is  a  part  of  their  duty  to  give 
a  report  concerning  the  condition  of  the  houses 
they  enter.  The  following  extracts  from  the 
Statutes  show  how  great  a  reform  we  can  bring 
about  by  faithful  reporting,  accompanied  by  a 
personal  request  that  the  law  shall  be  en- 
forced :  — 

8.  The  board  or  the  health  officer  shall  order  the 
owner  or  occupant  at  his  own  expense  to  remove  any 


108  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

nuisance,  source  of  filth,  or  cause  of  sickness,  found  on 
private  property,  within  twenty-four  hours.  .  .  . 

10.  If  the  owner  or  occupant  fails  to  comply  with 
such  order,  the  board  may  cause  the  nuisance,  source 
of  filth,  or  cause  of  sickness  to  be  removed;  and  all 
expenses  incurred  thereby  shall  be  paid  by  the  owner, 
occupant,  or  other  person  who  caused  or  permitted  the 
same,  if  he  has  had  actual  notice  from  the  board  of 
health  of  the  existence  thereof.  .  .  . 

109.  Every  tenement  or  lodging  house  shall  have  in 
every  room  which  is  occupied  as  a  sleeping-room,  and 
which  does  not  communicate  directly  with  the  external 
air,  a  ventilating  or  transom  window.  Every  such 
house  or  building  shall  have  in  the  roof,  at  the  top  of 
the  hall,  an  adequate  and  proper  ventilator,  of  a  form 
approved  by  the  inspector  of  buildings. 

no.  Every  such  house  shall  be  provided  with  a 
proper  fire-escape,  or  means  of  escape  in  case  of  fire, 
to  be  approved  by  the  inspector  of  buildings. 

in.  The  roof  of  every  such  house  shall  be  kept  in 
good  repair  and  so  as  not  to  leak ;  and  all  rain-water 
shall  be  so  drained  or  conveyed  therefrom  as  to  pre- 
vent its  dripping  on  ground  or  causing  dampness  in  the 
walls,  yard,  or  area.  All  stairs  shall  be  provided  with 
proper  balusters  or  railings,  and  shall  be  kept  in  good 
repair. 

112.  Every  such  building  shall  be  provided  with 
good  and  sufficient  water-closets,  earth-closets,  or  priv- 
ies, of  a  construction  approved  by  the  inspector  of 
buildings,  and  shall  have  proper  doors,  traps,  soil-pans, 
and  other  suitable  works  and  arrangements,  so  far  as 
may  be  necessary,  to  insure  the  efficient  operation 
thereof.  It  shall  not  be  lawful,  without  a  permit  from 
the  board  of  health  or  superintendent  of  health,  to  let  or 


Visitors  and  Visited.  109 

occupy,  or  suffer  to  be  occupied  separately  as  a  dwell- 
ing, any  vaults,  cellar,  or  underground  room.  .  .  .  The 
owner  or  keeper  of  any  lodging-house,  and  the  owner 
or  lessee  of  any  tenement  house  or  part  thereof,  shall 
■whitewash  the  walls  and  ceilings  thereof  twice  at  least 
every  year,  in  the  months  of  April  and  October,  unless 
the  §aid  board  shall  otherwise  direct.  Every  tenement 
or  lodging-house  shall  have  legibly  posted  or  painted  on 
the  wall  or  door  in  the  entry,  or  so?ne  public  accessible 
place,  the  name  and  address  of  the  owner  or  owners  and  of 
the  agent  or  agents,  or  any  one  having  charge  of  the 
renting  and  collecting   of  the  rents  for  the  same.  .  . . 

These  extracts  from  the  laws  may  be  found 
in  a  little  pamphlet  printed  by  the  Board  of 
Health  and  perfectly  accessible.  From  these 
brief  quotations,  it  will  be  seen  how  large  a 
power  the  visitor  possesses.  Contrast  for  a 
moment  what  may  be  done  with  what  is  done, 
and  no  one  can  fail  to  see  great  possibilities 
of  improvement.  If  walls  and  ceilings  must 
be  whitewashed  twice  in  the  year,  why  do  we 
find  them  so  black  ?  '  If  balusters  and  railings 
must  be  kept  in  repair,  why  do  we  climb  up 
uneven  stairs  by  a  broken  rail  ?  If  there  must 
always  be  a  ventilating  or  transom  window 
leading  to  the  outer  air,  why  do  we  stifle 
among  smells  too  bad  to  remember  ?  The 
answer  is  easy.  There  has  been  no  one  to 
complain.      Landlords    are    apt    to  let  things 


no  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

alone  as  long  as  they  can,  and  these  evils  have 
grown  to  be  what  they  are  by  the  visitor's 
default. 

We  pray  the  friends  of  the  poor  to  remem- 
ber this.  Helen  Campbell  says  :  "  In  one 
tenement  house  in  New  York,  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  people  were  so  packed  that  each  fam- 
ily had  a  living  space  of  but  ten  feet  by 
eleven.  The  Chinese  quarter  of  San  Fran- 
cisco shows  nothing  worse.  .  .  .  In  1870,  an 
Act  of  Parliament  demolished  ten  thousand 
houses  in  Glasgow,  and  within  two  years  a 
marked  change  in  health  returns,  prevention 
of  crime,  and  arrest  and  conviction  of  offenders 
was  the  result. ...  It  is  in  the  tenement  houses 
that  we  must  seek  for  the  mass  of  the  poor. 
And  it  is  in  the  tenement  houses  that  we  find 
the  causes  which,  combined,  are  making  of 
the  generation  now  coming  up  a  terror  in  the 
present  and  a  promise  of  future  evil  beyond 
man's  power  to  reckon.  They  are  a  class 
apart,  retaining  all  the  most  brutal  character- 
istics of  the  Irish  peasant  at  home,  but  with- 
out the  redeeming  light-heartedness,  the  ten- 
der impulses,  and  strong  affections  of  that 
most  perplexing  people.  .  .  . 

"There  are  many  houses  with  every  plank  in 
them  steeped  in  sin  and  misery.     Law  should 


Visitors  and  Visited.  in 

be  strong  enough  to  order  their  destruction. 
.  .  .  We  think  the  time  of  coarse,  brutal  sin- 
ning is  over,  and  that  our  charities,  our  great 
hospitals,  our  missions  here  and  there,  set  us 
apart  from  and  beyond  any  century  that  has 
gone, before.  We  wonder  why  pauperism  has 
become  a  profession ;  and  we  build  stately 
asylums  for  our  idiots  and  insane  and  crippled, 
while  we  allow  thousands  of  hot-beds  for  the 
production  of  such  species  to  do  their  work 
under  our  very  eyes.  If  it  goes  on  at  the 
present  rate,  ten  asylums  must  rise  where  one 
stands  now,  and  State  taxes  double  and  treble 
to  cover  the  cost  per  head  of  what  one  might 
judge  to  be  a  personal  luxury,  each  tax-payer 
requiring  his  special  pauper  or  idiot,  as  kings 
once  had  their  own  particular  fool. 

"  Foul  air  and  overcrowding  would,  however, 
be  less  fatal  in  its  results,  were  food  under- 
stood. The  well-filled  stomach  gives  strange 
powers  of  resistance  to  the  body.  .  .  .  Happily, 
to  know  an  evil  is  to  have  taken  the  first  step 
in  its  eradication.  ...  To  have  made  cooking 
and  industrial  training  the  fashion,  is  to  have 
cleared  away  the  thorny  underbrush  on  that 
debatable  ground,  the  best  education  of  the 
poor.  .  .  .  That  cooking  schools  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  cheap  and  savory  preparation  of  food 


1 1 2  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

must  soon  have  their  effect  on  the  percentage 
of  drunkards  no  one  can  question.  Philan- 
thropists may  urge  what  reforms  they  will, — 
less  crowding,  purer  air,  better  sanitary  regu- 
lations,—  but  this  question  of  food  underlies 
all.  The  knowledge  that  is  broad  enough  to 
insure  good  food  is  broad  enough  to  mean 
better  living  in  all  ways.  .  .  .  Such  work  must 
be  done  from  within,  out.  Methods  which 
touch  merely  the  outside  are  but  of  temporary 
service.  One  woman  who  has  learned  in  any 
degree  to  order  her  own  home  and  life  aright 
will  be  more  a  power  with  those  among  whom 
that  life  passes  than  a  dozen  average  preach- 
ers ;  and,  if  the  rich  would  trust  less  to  indis- 
criminate giving  and  more  to  the  work  of 
some  accredited  agent  of  this  description, 
they  would  find  double  the  result  for  every 
investment. 

"How  to  make  even  the  smallest  home  clean 
and  attractive,  and  to  get  the  largest  return 
from  every  dollar  earned,  is  a  knowledge  that 
means  physical  salvation,  and  thus  a  better 
prospect  for  understanding  the  spiritual.  .  .  . 
The  training  school  is  even  more  important 
than  the  public  school,  and  industrial  educa- 
tion the  only  solution  of  the  incompetence 
and  well-nigh  hopeless  inefficiency  of  the 
poorer  classes. 


Visitors  and  Visited.  113 

"They  are  with  us.  The  burden  is  ours, 
and  cannot  be  cast  aside.  It  remains  with  us 
to  train  them  into  decent  members  of  society, 
or  to  fold  our  hands  and  let  the  crowd  of 
imbeciles  and  drunkards  and  criminals  and 
lunatics  increase  year  by  year,  till  suddenly 
some  frightful  social  convulsion  opens  the 
eyes  that  have  refused  to  see,  and  disaster 
brings  about  what  moderate  effort  could  long 
before  have  accomplished." 

There  are  hundreds  of  tenement  houses  in 
every  poor  ward  of  Boston,  where  the  evils  of 
pauperized  Europe  seem  to  be  fostered  by 
transplanting.  Something  more  can  be  done 
by  a  better  fulfilling  of  the  laws  and  closer 
official  oversight.  Nothing,  however,  can  com- 
pare with  the  influence  of  a  friend  who  is  also 
landlord  or  landlady,  enforcing  extreme  punc- 
tuality in  the  payment  of  rents  and  proper 
care  of  the  apartments  Tented.  "  When  a 
tenant  is  out  of  work,  instead  of  reducing  his 
energy  by  any  gifts  of  money,  we  simply, 
whenever  the  funds  at  our  disposal  allow  it, 
employ  him  in  restoring  and  purifying  the 
houses.  .  .  .  The  same  cheering  and  encourag- 
ing sort  of  influence,  though  in  a  less  degree, 
is  exercised  by  our  plan  of  having  a  little 
band  of   scrubbers.     We   have  each   passage 


ii4  Horn  to  Help  the  Poor. 

scrubbed  twice  a  week  by  one  of  the  elder 
girls.  The  sixpence  thus  earned  is  a  stimulus, 
and  they  often  take  an  extreme  interest  in  the 
work  itself.  .  .  . 

"  Among  the  many  benefits  which  the  posses- 
sion of  the  houses  enables  us  to  confer  on  the 
people,  perhaps  the  most  important  is  our 
power  of  saving  them  from  neighbors  who 
would  render  their  lives  miserable.  It  is  a 
most  merciful  thing  to  protect  the  poor  from 
the  pain  of  living  in  the  next  room  to  drunken, 
disorderly  people.  '  I  am  dying,'  said  an  old 
woman  to  me  the  other  day.  '  I  wish  you 
would  put  me  where  I  can't  hear  S.  beating 
his  wife.'. .  .  Occasionally,,  we  come  upon  people 
whose  lives  are  so  good  and  sincere  it  is  only 
by  such  services  and  the  sense  of  our  friend- 
ship that  we  can  help  them  at  all.  In  all  im- 
portant things,  they  do  not  need  our  teaching, 
while  we  may  learn  much  from  them." 

For  the  assistance  of  the  visitor  who  can 
give  only  a  small  portion  of  time  to  the  work, 
a  sheet  has  been  printed  asking  to  have  cer- 
tain simple  questions  answered  relating  to  the 
condition  of  the  house  or  houses  where  the 
people  live  who  are  visited.  The  little  paper 
may  be  found  at  the  office  of  the  Associated 
Charities  in  Boston. 


Visitors  and  Visited.  115 

In  considering  the  need  of  destroying  cer- 
tain dwellings  altogether,  we  find  that  Mr. 
Charles  Spencer,  of    Philadelphia,  has  lately 

said  :  — 

•■ 

If  the  question  be  asked,  What  has  become  of  the 
wretched  people,  have  they  been  driven  into  other  dis- 
tricts, or  has  their  manner  of  life  been  improved  corre- 
spondingly with  the  better  accommodations  supplied? 
we  answer  that  we  have  not  learned  that  the  bettering 
of  Bedford  Street  has  made  any  other  district  worse ; 
but,  on  the  contrary,  since  the  people  have  been  scat- 
tered, we  have  known  in  some  happy  instances  of  those 
who  have  been  forced  to  leave,  driven  out  from  dens  of 
vice,  and  having  settled  in  less  noxious  localities,  be- 
coming industrious  and  respectable  citizens. 

Mr.  Theodore  Starr  thus  speaks  of  what  he 
believes  to  be  a  reasonably  successful  en- 
deavor to  come  into  contact  with  the  laboring 
poor  as  their  landlord,  and  by  fair  treatment, 
by  a  consideration  of  their  needs,  and  by 
insisting  upon  a  faithful  performance  of  their 
obligations,  to  gain  an  influence  over  them 
which,  it  was  hoped,  might  lead  to  much  physi- 
cal, moral,  and  spiritual  improvement  of  their 
condition.  The  basis  of  the  experiment  was 
a  purely  business  one,  and  its  object  was  two- 
fold :  — 

1.  Could  houses  of  a  reasonable  size,  rented 
at  such  a  rate  as  to  induce  the  laboring  man 


u6  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

to  use  them,  be  made  to  return  a  fair  interest 
to  the  owner  ? 

2.  Could  the  slums  of  the  city  be  redeemed 
to  decent  living,  if  decent  houses  were  built 
and  owned  by  decent  people,  and  rented  to 
decent  laboring  men  ? 

"  I  should  like  to  emphasize,"  he  writes, 
"  the  character  of  the  opposition  to  the  work  of 
regeneration.  It  arises  from  three  sources, — 
the  old  style  of  property  owners,  the  rum- 
seller,  and  the  ward  politician.  So  long  as 
the  work  is  that  of  simply  visiting  the  poor 
and  relieving  such  cases  as  seem  to  need  help, 
the  visitor  is  unmolested  and  arouses  no  oppo- 
sition ;  but  let  one  blow,  however  feeble,  be 
struck  at  the  root  of  the  matter,  and  at  once  a 
coalition  is  formed  to  obstruct  the  work.  ...  He 
who  enlists  in  this  war  for  the  regeneration  of 
the  slums  must  do  so  in  the  face  of  bitter 
opposition,  deep  discouragement,  and  oft- 
repeated  disappointment,  for  indeed  he  '  wres- 
tles against  principalities,  against  powers, 
against  the  rulers  of  the  darkness  of  this 
world,  against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high 
places.'  Nevertheless,  if  he  will  but  persevere 
in  the  right  methods  to  the  end,  his  effort 
cannot  fail  to  be  crowned  with  an  enduring 
success." 


Visitors  and  Visited.  117 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  important 
topics  which  should  engage  the  attention  of 
the  visitor  is  that  of  helping  people  to  save. 
In  Newport,  this  branch  of  work  has  been 
made  a  specialty,  the  peculiar  circumstances 
of  so  large  a  watering-place  rendering  it  a 
question  of  prime  importance.  The  commit- 
tee began  in  the  spring  of  1880  to  warn  their 
poor  friends  that  they  would  not  be  allowed  to 
receive  public  relief  the  following  winter,  and 
that,  unless  they  meant  to  suffer,  they  must  lay 
up  something  in  summer  for  the  winter's  wants. 
The  plan  adopted  is  simple  in  its  details,  and 
is  given  in  full  in  their  report  for  the  benefit 
of  those  who  wish  to  follow  it.  It  is  unusual, 
even  in  these  days  of  good  work,  to  see  any 
plan  followed  quite  so  closely  and  carefully  by 
a  company  of  visitors ;  and  the  result  is  a  suc- 
cess beyond  all  anticipation.  Surely,  if  our 
workers  everywhere  would  read  this  report,  the 
methods  would  be  much  more  widely  adopted. 
In  conclusion,  the  secretary  writes  :  — 

We  are  ready  to  say,  however,  that  having  educated 
our  people  (or  some  of  them)  into  the  practice  of 
saving,  our  wish  is  to  see  them  strong  enough  to  turn 
the  practice  into  a  habit,  and  to  do  without  our  help. 
For  this  reason,  we  look  with  great  satisfaction  on  the 
prospect  of  post-office  savings  banks,  which  will  make 
the  matter  easy  for  them  ;  and  more  than  a  year  ago  we 


n8  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

signed  a  petition   to   the   Postmaster-General   for   the 
establishment  of  such  banks. 

"Saving  is  like  spending,"  writes  Mrs.  Ames, 
"more  and  more  easy  the  longer  it  is  prac- 
tised. It  is  also  a  conservative  moral  habit 
which  helps  to  set  in  order  the  whole  life.  It 
is  a  great  gain  when  these  people  are  once 
aroused  to  the  fact  that  they  can  save." 

Trouble  of  any  kind,  and  especially  any 
misfortune  which  has  a  tendency  to  lower  a 
person  in  the  social  scale,  drives  people  into 
solitude.  Edward  Denison  wrote,  "  How 
many  thousands  of  paupers  have  lived  and 
died  and  been  buried  at  the  public  expense, 
whom  a  little  friendly  advice,  a  little  search 
for  friends  or  relatives,  some  pains  taken  to 
find  proper  work,  when  the  first  application 
to  the  Board  was  made,  would  have  lifted  out 
of  the  mire  and  set  on  the  rock  of  honest 
industry."  Many  of  the  poor  who  most 
deeply  need  visitors  are  lonely  persons,  and 
the  fact  of  finding  a  friend  at  last  is  encour- 
agement to  them  and  a  beginning  of  better 
times.  The  influence  of  clubs,  unions,  asso- 
ciations, meetings  for  discussion,  is  often  very 
beneficial.  Men  whose  homes  are  uncomfort- 
able are  helped  over  many  a  hard  hour  by 
being   allowed    to   go   to   a   reading-room   or 


Visitors  and  Visited.  119 

good  place  of  resort.  There  are  so  many- 
bad  places  to  go  to  that  the  sooner  the  visitor 
can  put  a  half-discouraged  man  into  relation 
to  an  organization  worth  joining  the  better 
chance  there  will  be  of  his  improvement. 
In  an  admirable  little  English  book,  by 
Ellice  Hopkins,  called  Work  among  Working- 
men,  we  read  :  "  One  thing  at  least  is  certain. 
The  public  house,  in  some  form  or  other,  is 
a  necessity.  .  .  .  However  domestic  a  man  may 
be,  he  requires  the  society  of  his  fellows,  he 
needs  some  place  where  he  can  see  the 
papers,  and  where  he  can  talk  trade  and 
politics.  .  .  .  The  club  house  is  an  absolute 
necessity  to  workingmen.  .  .  .  Practically,  it 
seems  to  be  constantly  overlooked  that  the 
old  tavern  bore  precisely  the  same  fruits  in 
the  we'.l-to-do  class  as  it  is  now  bearing  in  the 
lower  classes ;  and  not  till  the  club  took  the 
place  of  the  tavern  did  a  better  state  of  public 
opinion  arise,  and  a  consequent  diminution 
of  drunkenness.  .  .  .  Should  we  not  meet  with 
more  success,  if  we  were  steadily  to  recognize 
that  the  club,  with  its  absence  of  vicious  self- 
interest  enlisted  in  the  drink  traffic,  with  its 
esprit  de  corps  and  its  character  to  sustain, 
does  present,  both  positively  and  negatively, 
the  necessary  moral  influences  to  control  the 


120  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

use  of  intoxicants,  or  to  dispense  with  them 
altogether,  as  may  be  thought  best ;  and  if, 
while  still  endeavoring  to  procure  an  amend- 
ment of  our  licensing  laws,  we  were  to  throw 
our  chief  energies  into  getting  the  club  sub- 
stituted for  the  public  house  ? 

"'Why  not  advocate  the  establishment  of 
coffee-palaces  which  are  open  to  all  ? '  some 
one  will  ask.  '  Why  restrict  it  to  the  members 
of  a  club  ? ' 

"  Coffee-palaces  are  admirable  things,  and 
I  advocate  their  being  multiplied  tenfold  in 
every  large  town.  They  will  do  much  to 
educate  everybody  out  of  our  present  ridicu- 
lous dependence  on  alcoholic  drinks,  as  if 
they  were  the  necessary  concomitant  of  every 
social  and  kindly  feeling.  ...  As  a  rule,  how- 
ever, workingmen  do  not  use  them  as  an 
evening  resort,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
they  do  not  afford  quiet,  separate  rooms  where 
they  can  feel  at  home,  and  where  they  can 
smoke  their  pipes  and  do  as  they  like.  And 
I  would  earnestly  point  out,  it  is  the  evening 
resort  that  must  ever  be  the  stronghold  of 
drunkenness.  .  .  .  Even  in  those  rare  cases 
where  the  upper  premises  of  a  coffee-jDalace 
are  let  off  for  the  exclusive  use  of  a  working- 
men's  club,  there   is   the  great   disadvantage 


Visitors  and  Visited.  121 

of  the  club  being  forced  to  adopt  total  absti- 
nence principles,  whether  they  wish  it  or  not, 
since  intoxicants  are  not  allowed  on  the 
premises.  In  the  case  of  voluntary  teetotal- 
ers, this  would  lead  to  no  evil ;  but,  with 
those  who  are  not,  it  leads  to  their  going  else- 
where to  get  the  glass  of  beer  they  cannot 
procure  at  their  club.  And  I  would  again 
urge  that  you  should  never  attack  drunkenness 
in  the  mass  on  principles  of  total  abstinence. 
.  .  .  Why  do  we  expect  of  workingmen  a  self- 
denial  which,  in  the  mass,  we  do  not  practise 
ourselves  ?  .  .  .  When  you  admit  intoxicants, 
you  must  also  secure  a  moral  element,  the 
social  esprit  de  corps  of  a  well-organized  club, 
to  control  them.  The  admission  of  beer  into 
coffee-palaces  would,  I  fear,  generate  the  old 
abuses  over  again." 

"The  workingman's  home,"  writes  Edward 
Denison  again,  "in  great  towns  is  such  that 
he  cannot  there  give  himself  either  to  study 
or  recreation.  He  must  have  a  club ;  and,  till 
every  head  of  a  family  belongs  to  a  club, 
there  is  not  much  hope  of  the  poorer  artisans 
improving  their  condition."  Women  and  chil- 
dren, too,  should  be  introduced  into  the 
schools  and  classes  working  everywhere  for 
their  education,  physical,  moral,  and  religious. 


122  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

They  need  to  be  persuaded  to  take  the  first 
step;  but,  this  difficult  point  once  passed,  they 
are  willing  to  make  a  good  deal  of  effort  to 
hold  the  places  they  have  gained. 

The  old  method  of  working  for  the  poor 
always  left  the  man  in  the  swamp,  but  threw 
him  biscuits  to  keep  him  from  starving.  By 
means  of  throwing  him  biscuits  enough,  he 
managed  to  make  the  oozy  place  appear  to 
himself  soft  and  even  comfortable.  The  new 
method  is  to  throw  him  a  plank.  He  cannot 
eat  or  drink  the  plank,  but  he  can  scramble 
out  upon  it,  and  have  his  share  of  the  labors 
and  rewards  which  the  experience  of  life 
brings  both  to  high  and  low. 

"  The  supreme  need  is  to  give  not  only  our 
dollars,  but  ourselves,  and  to  learn  the  busi- 
ness." 

The  noble  duty  of  caring  for  the  sick  poor 
is  one  which  has  been  omitted  from  these 
pages,  because  of  the  importance  of  the  sub- 
ject and  the  fact  that  it  is  too  often  considered 
altogether  as  a  specialty;  but  there  are  cer- 
tain things  which  every  woman  should  know, 
and  which,  if  she  visits  without  knowing,  she 
cannot  fulfil  all  her  duty.  Miss  Nightingale 
writes  as  follows  regarding  the  success  to  be 
attained  by  nurses  who  serve  the  sick  poor:  — 


Visitors  and  Visited.  123 

As  to  your  success  ?  What  is  not  your  success  ? 
To  raise  the  homes  of  your  patients,  so  that  they  never 
fall  back  again  to  dirt  and  disorder, —  such  is  your 
nurses'  influence.  To  pull  through  life  and  death 
cases, —  cases  which  it  would  be  an  honor  to  pull 
through  with  all  flie  appurtenances  of  hospitals,  or  of 
the  richest  of  the  land, —  and  this  without  any  appurte- 
nances at  all.  To  keep  whole  families  out  of  pauper- 
ism by  preventing  the  home  from  being  broken  up,  and 
by  nursing  the  bread-winner  back  to  health.  To  drag 
the  noble  art  of  nursing  out  of  the  sink  of  relief  doles. 
To  carry  out  practically  the  principles  of  preventing 
disease  by  stopping  its  causes  or  infections  which 
spread  disease. 

Florence  Craven  says  upon  this  subject : — 

"Whenever  a  nurse  enters,  order  and  cleanliness  must 
enter  with  her.  She  must  reform  and  re-create,  as  it 
were,  the  homes  of  the  sick  poor.  These  unfortunate 
people  often  lose  even  the  feeling  of  what  it  is  to  be 
clean.  The  district  nurse  has,  therefore,  to  show  them 
their  room  clean  for  once,  and  to  bring  about  this  result 
with  her  own  hands ;  to  sweep  and  dust,  empty  and 
wash  out  all  the  appalling  dirt  and  foulness ;  air  and 
disinfect,  rub  the  windows,  sweep  the  fireplace,  carry 
out  and  shake  the  bits  of  old  sacking  and  carpet  and 
lay  them  down  again,  fetch  fresh  water,  and  fill  the 
kettle,  wash  the  patient  and  the  children,  and  make  the 
bed. 

And  Miss  Nightingale  adds  again  : — 

Every  room  thus  cleaned  has  always  been  kept  so. 
This  is  her  glory.  She  found  it  a  pigsty :  she  left  it  a 
tidy,  airy  room. 


124  How  to  Help  the  Poor. 

To  teach  the  poor  how  to  use  even  the 
small  share  of  goods  and  talents  intrusted 
to  them  proves  to  be  almost  the  only  true 
help  of  a  worldly  sort  which  it  is  possible  to 
give  them.  Other  gifts,  through  the  long  ages 
tried  and  found  wanting,  we  must  have  done 
with.  Nearly  one  million  of  dollars  in  public 
and  private  charities  have  been  given  away  in 
one  year  in  Boston  alone ;  and  this  large  sum 
has  brought,  by  way  of  return,  a  more  fixed 
body  of  persons  who  live  upon  the  expecta- 
tion of  public  assistance,  and  whose  degrada- 
tion becomes  daily  deeper.  The  truth  has 
been  made  clear  to  us  that  expenditure  of 
money  and  goods  alone  does  not  alleviate 
poverty. 

How,  then,  we  ask,  may  help  be  given  ? 
To  find  a  fitting  answer,  we  have  studied  the 
methods  of  other  countries  and  of  holy,  self- 
sacrificing  men  and  women  who  have  also 
learned  wisdom  in  their  humble  devotion  to 
their  work.  And  the  answer  we  find  is  this : 
we  have  followed  the  law,  and  not  the  spirit  of 
the  Master ;  but  the  law  is  dead,  and  he  still 
lives  among  us,  the  shepherd  of  his  sheep, 
speaking  through  these  hungry  and  suffering 
children,  and  praying  us  not  to  give  the  meat 
which   perisheth,   but    the   meat   which   shall 


Visitors  and  Visited.  125 

endure.  In  our  comfortable  and  sheltered 
homes,  we  forget  how  near  these  wretched 
cellars  and  attics  are  to  the  reformatories  and 
prison  cells.  They  are  the  next  door,  and  it 
depends  often  upon  our  personal  influence 
over  the  poor  to  keep  that  door  shut. 

When  we  are  told  that  certain  evils  cannot 
be  helped,  that  we  may  as  well  let  things 
alone,  we  must  remember  that  experience  has 
taught  differently.  Evils  can  be  helped,  and 
to  let  things  alone  is  to  lend  ourselves  to 
wrong.  It  is  to  be  cowardly  and  to  hate  just 
where  we  are  taught  to  love,  and  to  have  faith 
that  will  remove  mountains. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value  of 
friendly  communication  with  the  poor  and  un- 
fortunate. When  I  see  what  is  accomplished 
sometimes  by  what  in  contrast  may  be  called 
so  small  an  expenditure,  it  seems  impossible 
not  to  spread  the  good  news,  and  thus  bring 
in  a  very  much  larger  number  of  workers, 
where  the  harvest  is  so  abundant.  "  From 
wealth,  little  can  be  hoped ;  from  intercourse, 
everything." 


WRITINGS  OF  JAMES  T.  FIELDS. 


Yesterdays  with  Authors.  Twenty-Fifth  Edition. 
i2mo,  gilt  top,  $2-00;  half  calf,  $4.00. 

Holiday  Edition.  With  Portraits  of  Pope,  Wordsworth, 
Thackeray,  Dickens  (2),  Hawthorne  (2),  Miss  Mitford, 
"  Barry  Cornwall,"  and  Leigh  Hunt.  8vo,  full  gilt, 
$3.00  ;  half  calf,  $5.50  ;  morocco,  $7.50. 

Contents.  —  Thackeray,  Hawthorne,  Dickens,  Words- 
worth, Miss  Mitford,  Barry  Cornwall  and  some  of  his 
Friends. 

It  is  the  kind  of  book  which  the  world  is  certain  to  read,  —  a  book 
for  a  half  hour,  for  a  long  summer  day  in  the  woods  or  on  the  shore, 
or  for  a  winter  evening  by  the  quiet  fireside.  Dip  into  it  where  you 
will,  you  will  always  find  it  detaining  your  attention,  charming  your 
heart  with  its  pleasant  reminiscences,  filling  your  fancy  with  its  ex- 
quisite little  sketches,  luring  you  on  into  visions  and  imaginings  that 
will  make  you  forget  the  present,  and  help  you  to  feel  that  the  pleas- 
ures of  memory  furnished  by  such  a  skillful  story-teller  as  Mr. 
Fields  are  very  precious  indeed.  .  .  .  Wherever  this  book  is  known 
it  is  sure  to  be  valued,  and  we  can  only  hope  that  its  charming 
pages  will  become  familiar  to  those  who  wish  to  come  into  pleasant 
intercourse  with  the  illustrious  dead,  whose  words  and  deeds,  whose 
characters  and  habits,  are  so  happily  recalled  in  these  delightfully 
interesting  pages.  —  Literary  World  (London). 

This  work  is  far  better  than  Crabb  Robinson's  delightful  book,  the 
fault  of  which  was  that,  being  chiefly  a  diary,  it  only  gave  glimpses  o: 
eminent  people;  whereas  Mr.  Fields  gives  portraits,  not  elaborated, 
but  spirited,  graceful,  and  undeniably  accurate.  Much  of  what  he  tells 
us  is  the  result  of  personal  knowledge  and  observation,  and  for  the 
rest  he  has  allowed  the  subjects  of  his  reminiscences  to  speak  for 
themselves  in  their  many  letters.  — Philadelphia  Press. 

It  offers  a  rare  charm  to  the  lovers  of  literary  anecdote,  and  in 
many  considerable  portions  possesses  an  interest  no  less  enticing  than 
the  naive  recitals  of  Boswell.  — New  York  Tribune. 

*#*  For  sale  by  all  Booksellers.  Sent  by  mail,  post-paid,  on  receipt 
of  price  by  the  Publishers, 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO.,  Boston,  Mass. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    000  356  962    1 


